IFAD social reporting blog

Dernières lignes droites avant la clôture du PFA : Réunion Suivi-Evaluation

2012-01-24T16:36:00.003+01:00

Le programme de la Facilité Alimentaire (PFA) de l’Union Européenne en Afrique de l’Ouest entre dans sa phase finale. Le FIDA, comme stipulé dans les accords avec l’Union Européenne, doit soumettre un rapport de fin d’activités au plus tard le 31 mars 2012.
L’objectif général de ce rapport est de présenter les principaux résultats obtenus par le Programme, les difficultés rencontrées dans la conduite des activités, les leçons et les enseignements à tirer de cette expérience, de renforcement des capacités des différents pays en matière de production et de diffusion de semences et de boutures certifiées.

Dans l’optique de la rédaction de ce rapport, une réunion sur le suivi-évaluation aura lieu à Ouagadougou, Burkina-Faso, du 25 au 27 janvier 2012.

La réunion, composée de responsables suivi-évaluation et de chefs de composantes du PFA, sera menée par Adriane Del Torto, Chargée de Programme Associée, par M. Daniel Thieba, consultant en Suivi-Evaluation et par M. Fatogoma Diarra, consultant expert agronome.

Les objectifs de l’atelier sont les suivants :
Faire le point sur l’état d’avancement dans la collecte des informations sur la mesure des indicateurs
Faire le point sur le travail restant à être réalisé (données statistiques et collecte des données qualitatives auprès des paysans)
Rappeler et identifier les indicateurs complémentaires à ceux déjà mentionnés dans les cadres logiques, pour mesurer l’impact du programme
Préciser la répartition des rôles entre les acteurs partis prenantes de la conduite de l’évaluation
Préparer les visites sur le terrain pour le mois de février 2012.

Suite à ces deux jours de réunion, un plan d’action sera adopté.

Beyond the Arab Awakening: Food security and conflict in the Middle East and North Africa

2012-01-23T18:08:00.004+01:00

As popular discontent swept across much of the Arab world over the past year, some observers were puzzled. “How is it,” asked the World Bank’s World Development Report 2011, “that countries in the Middle East and North Africa could face explosions of popular grievances despite, in some cases, sustained high growth and improvement in social indicators?”

Last week, experts from IFAD and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) took a stab at answering that question in a panel discussion at IFAD headquarters in Rome. Their observations were based on early results from a three-year research project, co-funded by IFAD and IFPRI, examining the nexus of rural development, food security and conflict.

The study’s initial phase covers 24 “Arab-plus” nations, comprising all the members of the Arab League plus Iran and Turkey. The panellists emphasized that it is a work in progress and said the presentation was, in part, an opportunity to solicit feedback from colleagues who brought their own expertise to the table.

Those caveats aside, the researchers’ preliminary conclusions were provocative. While conditions vary from country to country, they said, indicators of well-being in the region are not as positive as official figures suggest. What’s more, Arab nations may be exceptionally vulnerable to conflicts associated with food insecurity and poverty.

A proxy for poverty
Given the severe rates of youth unemployment and rising commodity prices in many Arab states, there’s little doubt that economic grievances triggered at least some of the unrest they’ve experienced. Yet the official statistics issued by governments show a steady decline in poverty amidst economic growth.

At the panel discussion, IFPRI research analyst Perrihan Al-Riffai presented evidence that the government data may be flawed and incomplete. To set an accurate baseline for analysis, she explained, the IFPRI researchers have selected a proxy for official poverty figures. Rather than income, they’re looking at the rate of stunting among children under five – because stunting is a clear marker for vulnerability and food insecurity at the household level.

“The nutritional indicator is more comprehensive than the poverty indicator,” said Al-Riffai. “It really paints a different picture. When we plot the nutrition-growth relationship, we find that the Arab-plus countries are not doing as well as the rest of the world in reducing poverty through economic growth.”

This analysis matters, Al-Riffai and other panellists argued, because reliable data provide the only sound basis for evidence-based budget and policy decisions that will reduce poverty and promote stability.

Risk of food insecurity
The figures on child stunting also shed new light on food insecurity in the Arab world. Based on the proportion of revenues that each country spends to import food, the researchers found that the risk of food insecurity ranges from “low” to “serious” across the region. When the child-nutrition data are factored in, however, the risk shifts toward “alarming.”

Three countries in the Horn of Africa – Sudan, Somalia and Yemen – are among those registering the highest risk. And the rural poor are the most vulnerable population overall.

As IFPRI senior researcher Clemens Breisinger pointed out, investments in agriculture usually reduce poverty more cost-effectively than any other form of development. Yet smallholder farming has not thrived in the Arab-plus countries. In fact, farming is no longer the main source of income for the region’s poorest rural households, who now earn more than 80 per cent of their income from non-agricultural activities.

“Agriculture is globally the most pro-poor sector, but not in the Arab world,” said IFPRI senior researcher Clemens Breisinger. “There are some serious issues of growth not reaching the poor.”

Links to conflict
Another panellist, IFPRI senior researcher Jean-François Maystadt, went on to highlight some of the links between lagging agricultural development and conflict.

In general, said Maystadt, periods of political transition heighten the risk of violence between groups within a society, and recent events around the Middle East and North Africa surely seem to verify that point. More broadly, he said, the Arab world faces an ongoing risk of conflict stemming from myriad factors. These include weak institutions and a demographic ”youth bubble,” as well as dependency on oil exports for foreign exchange.

In some places – such as Somalia, the subject of a case study by the research team – climate change also fosters conflict by depriving rural populations of their traditional livelihoods.

But in many Arab countries, the disconnect between overall economic growth and persistent rural poverty may be the most inflammatory factor of all. “Rising food prices increase food insecurity,” said Maystadt, “and this increases the risk of conflict.”

Basis for investments
These finding suggest that a broad-based approach to food security, focused not only on agricultural development but also on stimulating the wider rural economy, could mitigate the risk of future conflicts in Arab nations. More study is needed to determine which policies will have the greatest impact.

To that end, the IFAD-IFPRI project team will supplement its initial research with visits to IFAD programmes and interviews in the field. In addition, the team will use its newly developed Atlas for Rural Development and Conflict, a comprehensive digital database, for further analysis and modelling. Their on-going work will concentrate mainly on Egypt, Gaza and the West Bank, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen.

Ultimately, the goal of the research project is more practical than academic. “It will give us a more quantified and empirical basis for our investments,” said IFAD Country Programme Manager Omer Zafar. Over time, informed by solid research, those investments should make a real difference in rural lives across the Arab world.

Equity investment in rural Armenia: A business model with a development impact

2012-01-13T16:15:00.002+01:00

When is an equity investment fund more than just a money machine? When it focuses on development rather than quick riches.

That’s exactly what a unique IFAD project has been doing in Armenia since 2009, with investments in the country’s food-processing sector designed to expand markets and improve the economic prospects of smallholder farmers. Known as the Fund for Rural Economic Development in Armenia (FREDA), the initiative combines elements of both development assistance and banking.

In effect, FREDA uses the financial instrument of equity funding not to trigger short-term profits but, instead, to build sustainable agricultural livelihoods.

At IFAD headquarters in Rome yesterday, Dr. Tigran Khanikyan, CEO of FREDA, and Dr. Jorma Ruotsi, IFAD Senior Finance Specialist, presented a report on the fund’s performance and impact during its first two years of operation. Their findings suggested that equity investments can be a viable tool for reducing rural poverty.

‘Engines of rural development’

“If you want to do a serious job of rural poverty reduction, you have to use new, innovative methods of finance and development,” said Dr. Ruotsi. To that end, he explained, FREDA invests in “engines of rural development” – including dairy, canning, wine-making, and fish and poultry processing companies.

IFAD and the Government of Armenia established FREDA in January 2009, with additional funding from the Government of Denmark. At the same time, a twinning arrangement was set up with the Danish equity firm IFU to build the fund’s capacity. Operations commenced the following September.

Dr. Ruotsi said the FREDA concept arose out of a lack of agricultural lending after the financial crisis of 2008. Banks were demanding extremely high collateral for loans, and small- and medium-sized rural enterprises urgently needed an alternative source of financing and leverage. In Armenia’s transitional economy, where agriculture is mostly smallholder-based, IFAD and its partners stepped in to test the equity investment model.

Today, FREDA has a portfolio comprising nearly $3 million invested in seven agro-producers, with another eight in the pipeline.

Financial and technical support

Unlike most equity funds, which concentrate only on achieving high financial returns, FREDA targets companies that are strategically placed within the food value chain. Because these businesses must procure high-quality crops and other supplies from local smallholders, their success or failure directly affects the well-being of poor rural households. So FREDA bases each investment decision on both the firm’s business plan and its projected contribution to local economic development.

Dr. Khanikyan, the FREDA chief, noted that the fund provides financing for new technology and equipment, as well as working capital, to the companies in which it invests. What’s more, he said, FREDA provides them with non-financial support to strengthen business systems and management practices.

This technical support includes an independent valuation of each company prior to investment, plus help with marketing, accounting and management practices. Crucially, FREDA also ensures the producers’ compliance with international food safety standards, a prerequisite for expanding their export markets.

Armenia and beyond

“We’ve found that these are very efficient investments,” said Dr. Khanikyan – and indeed, he and Dr. Ruotsi presented some impressive results. A FREDA-invested winery has increased its production capacity by 500 per cent since 2009, for example, while a fish factory with equity funding has multiplied its exports by a factor or 10.

“Equity investment is a logical extension of the kind of work that IFAD does in many countries,” said IFAD Country Programme Manager Henning Pedersen, who moderated the presentation and was a key figure in FREDA’s launch. “This is just one instrument that is appropriate in certain circumstances,” he added.

So far, it seems to be an effective instrument in Armenia. If FREDA meets current targets for 2015, it will have investments in 30 food-processing enterprises providing market outlets for thousands of the country’s smallholder farmers.

The next logical question is whether the equity investment model can be replicated in other transitional and developing countries. Armenia’s experience suggests that it may well be worth a try.

Thanks to DJ Titus Twish, a slice of #sfrome makes it to The Economist

2011-12-30T13:43:00.000+01:00

One of the best moments of the week, is when I get around to read one of the latest issues of The Economist, as typically I have to catch up with two and sometimes three issues!

What ever the case may be, I love that fraction of a second when I go the pile in my room and pick the latest issues, because I know I’ll be spending a couple of gratifying hours.

The readers of IFAD Social Reporter blog will remember our coverage of the Second Global AgriKnowledge Share Fair and Rob Burnet’s keynote address “Sex and Money”.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when in reading the Christmas issue of The Economist, I came across the story entitled “Kenya and Charles Dickens: Great expectations - Some parts of Kenya can justly be called Dickensian”.

In this issue, The Economist covered the story of DJ Titus Twist - the very person at the heart of Rob's keynote speech. The very person who kept 400+ participants in a state of awe for over 40 minutes. The very same person who came to life thanks to the artistic talent and creativity of our very own Nancy White.

I was so happy that the story of DJ Titus Twist had made it to The Economist! Kudos to Well Told Story, kudos to Shujaaz, kudos to DJ Titus Twish, and kudos to Rob and all the team.

And as I was reading the article, I thought to myself thanks to DJ Titus, a slice of Share Fair and #sfrome also made it to The Economist!

For those who missed Rob Burnet’s keynote address: “Sex and Money”, you can remedy by watching the inaugural ceremony of the Share Fair. Rob’s keynote is around 50th minute to the recording.

Also make sure you read the blogposts from our army of social reporters and check out issue 3 of the Daily Corriere

For us at IFAD, the Share Fair was one of the many highlights of 2011. We would like to finish the year by paying tribute to all our keynote speakers - Etienne Wenger, Rob Burnet, Mark Davies and Michele Payn-Knoper; to our army of social reports; to the insightful presenters; to the wonderful facilitators; to our sister-agencies; to the steering committee members; to all our partners; to the 700+ participants who for four days energized our building, to the volunteers and to the wonderful share fair support team, who on 21 December received one of the 2011 staff awards, for their instrumental role in making this event such as memorable one.

In closing, we wish you all a Happy New Year. May 2012 be a peaceful and prosperous one for everyone and let's join forces to keep the spirit of #sfrome alive.

Daily Corriere issue number 3 - The Share Fair newsletter

View more documents from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

Celebrating 27 extraordinary colleagues at #IFAD: What a great way to finish the year

2011-12-21T19:59:00.000+01:00

This afternoon we came together for the 2011 staff award ceremony.

IFAD staff awards is very special. What makes it different from other awards and recognitions is the fact that its an award for staff by staff.

Every year we have the opportunity to nominate and reward our colleagues and peer for their leadership, for being agents of change, for spearheading and contributing to an outstanding project and/or activity.

And this year, we had the opportunity to honour 27 extraordinary colleagues!

Our lovely colleague Shyam Khadka got the award in the leadership category. The award paid tribute to Shyam’s eloquent and consistent leadership, to his role as the “programme management department anchor” for all major corporate evaluations including direct supervision and country presence. Shyam was recognized for his strong negotiating skills, ability to constructively engagement with others, his tact, his relentless focus on achieve the best possible results. Shyam is not only a leader, but a mentor and a role model for many of us. This year's award for leadership could not have gone to anyone better than Shyam!

In a true team spirit and to celebrate cross-departmental and cross-divisional work - the embodiment of breaking down silos - two teams got the awards in the outstanding project/initiative category.

Shamela Brown, Victoria Chiartano, Paola de Leva and Amedeo Paglione were awarded for having conceived, planned, developed and implemented the Member States Interactive Platform. The award recognized the hard work that went into turning this initiative into reality. They were acknowledged for their vision, commitment, for coming together from different parts of the house, to provide IFAD with a better way to effectively communicate with our donors.

The other team is one known to the readers of IFAD Social Reporting blog - the team who worked behind the scenes to make the Second Global AgriKnowledge Share Fair possible. This team that was instrumental in opening IFAD's doors to 700 participants from 60 countries in September 2011. Thanks to the exemplary teamwork of Alessio Accardi, Christian Assogba, Fabio Caruso, Jean Philippe Decraene, Christian De Santis, Roberto De Tora, Severino Manuel, Roberto Montalto, Dave Nolan, Birgit Plockinger, Roberto Rea, Beate Stalsett, Elisabetta Vaccari and Florence Yu, IFAD was able to orchestrate an “out-of-the-box” and successful event. They are indeed a dream team, a true testament of "IFAD at its best" and sterling example of team work within and between divisions, one that cuts through divisional and departmental silos, and gives true definition to the word team.

We finished by celebrating three extraordinary colleagues and our GoGreenGroup as agents of change.

Rahel Getachew was rewarded for consistently showing relentless commitment to excellence and for always going the extra mile. Rahel was recognized for enhancing IFAD’s image, both internally and externally, she was recognized as being the embodiment of the true professional, tirelessly gracious and tenaciously supportive even when under the most intense of pressure. The award paid tribute to her many wonderful attributes which are appreciated by all levels of staff and stakeholders, and reinforces the recognition of all the hard work done by Rahel, that is not always visible but that is the foundation of the organization's internal strength.

Hubert Boirard was recognized for his outstanding performance in managing the challenging country portfolio of Sierra Leone and Liberia. Everyone recognized his efforts in transforming Sierra Leone portfolio into high performing and disbursing one. He was commended for implementing an innovative project management unit as an integral part of the Ministry of Agriculture in Liberia. Thanks to Hubert's work, the World Bank and African Development Bank decided this year to assign their programmes to be managed by this project management unit. The award recognized Hubert’s abilities and skills of innovator and change agent delivering tangible results that turned around the performance of the country portfolios in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Dina Nabeel, who unfortunately was not present, was recognized for her initiatives to drive and support the changes that facilitated and allowed IFAD to successfully take over the responsibility of supervising its projects. Her work was instrumental in building staff capacity at headquarters and in the field to handle fiduciary aspects associated with supervision and implementation support. This award recognized Dina’s ability as a change agent that supports and motivate peers to deliver important changes in the way we work which has led to tangible improvements of project results on the ground.

We paid tribute to the IFAD Go Green Group, composed of Moses Abukari, Hazel Bedford, Miriam Blanco, Steven Jonckheere and Sabine Pallas for their outstanding contribution in promoting a green and environmental friendly attitude at corporate level. The Go Green Group was established as small group of volunteers in August 2008, following the Secretary-General’s request to launch a UN initiative to reduce energy consumption and the carbon footprint of the United Nations Headquarters. The group has had its share of challenges, as initially it was met with some scepticism. However, their passion and tenacity has inspired many colleagues to the point where IFAD is now working together with other UN agencies in the Sustainable UN network to become climate neutral by putting in place systems to reduce IFAD’s environmental impact (Greening the Blue Initiative).

We all look forward to 2012 edition of IFAD staff award, which will definitely pay tribute to many more colleagues. And before I sign-off, congratulations to Ron Hartman for receiving the Presidential award. We all thank Ron for his great work in re-engaging with Australia. And happy holidays to all our readers. May 2012 be a peaceful and prosperous year for you all.

Monitoring and Evaluating the IFAD Country Programme in Ghana

2011-12-15T18:27:00.002+01:00

by Adriane Del Torto

Monitorting and Evaluation (M&E) is often considered one of the weakest links in development programmes. This is also true for IFAD. The IFAD Country Programme in Ghana took this as a challenge to overcome and started to invest in M&E about two years ago. After putting an emphasis on this theme for some time now, it was finally decided that the stakeholders involved in M&E should get together to share successes and address the gaps that still exist in M&E. From 12 to 14 December, a Ghana Country Programme Learning and Exchange Workshop on M&E took place at the Alisa Hotel in Accra.

The workshop , organised by the IFAD Country Office in close collaboration with the West Africa Rural Foundation (WARF) brought together representatives from all IFAD projects, the Roots and Tuber Improvement and Marketing Project (RTIMP), Northern Rural Growth Programme (NRGP), Rural Enterprises Programme( REP II), Rural Agriculture Finance Programme( RAFIP), Northern Region Poverty Reduction Project (NORPREP), WARF, the Government of Ghana - the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFIP) and the National Development and Planning Commission (NDPC) and partners IFPRI/SAKKSS, IPA, University of Ghana, Busylab , Esoko Mobile Technology, in an innovative and interactive workshop.

The overall objective of this workshop is to identify how to use M&E to its fullest capacities. This means using the information generated by M&;E on implementation progress as a management tool rather than an institutional requirement. The workshop helped identify outcomes, output and impact of projects while emphasising on the qualitative side of M&E which is often excluded.

The basis of the discussion were the newfound focus on M&E for the Ghana Country Programme, the recommendations from the last country programme supervision mission (which took place mid November to mid December 2011) , the current national and project M&E structures, capitalisation efforts and finally research in M&E undertaken by our implementation partners.

After each project identified the key issues raised by the supervision mission, the partners making their presentations, the workshop allowed each project to review the M&E indicators making sure they are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time bound) and ensure that these indicators are the right one to measure the outcomes and impacts desired by the project. It also allowed for the identification of research needs that will improve the M&E and impact reporting

The workshop highlighted the good results in M&E in the Ghana portfolio until now, and also how much these efforts contribute daily to the improvement of the systems and the improvements still needed. Most importantly, projects have shared and exchanged on how to improve their indicators and how to address the difficulties they are facing. Some recurrent themes are the following:

- need to improve data collection at the field level by involving beneficiaries and possibly digitalising

- need to strengthen grassroots institutions
- need for data control at all levels
- need for better data management and analysis
- need for commitment of all actors
- need to fill information gaps through studies
- need to identify, undersand and maintain linkages
- need for better gender mainstreaming
- need to identify further partnerships through good planning

Each project came up with an action plan during the workshop that will be mainstreamed into the AWPB to ensure its implementation.

Most importantly, a topic that came up on many occasions is the importance of good communication and the importance of making the time to exchange on the positive outcomes achieved. In order to ensure good communication there are several Fora in Ghana to ensure exchanges between stakeholders on themes of on microfinance, rural finance and value chains. Furthermore, WARF and FIDAFRIQUE are imporant partners in Ghana but also for IFAD projects in West and Central Africa: they help will ensure that the information to be shared is well articulated and diffused on the regional platform.

Outstanding challenges and considerations for the future are how to make adequate time to engage in proper M&E activities and to ensure that the lessons learned from good M&E fit into policy dialogue.

IFAD projects in Ghana: Improving livelihoods

2011-12-12T13:30:00.001+01:00

Women fixing the squeezer to drainwater

from the grated cassava at theMilenovisi Gari Processing factory

by Philomena Dovi Kuzoe

Eastern Region, Ghana- A team from the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD in Rome was in Ghana for a four day working visit to attend the Country Programme Evaluation round table and the start-up workshop for the new Country Strategic Opportunities Programmes. The team, together with the CPM and Officials from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture made a field visit to IFAD’s project sites in the Eastern region of Ghana This is to enable them have first-hand information on projects.. In all, the team visited four project sites. First, the team met with the Fanteakwa District Chief Executive, the Coordinating Director of Micro and Small Scale Enterprises and other project staff and clients. They discussed the implementation and activities of the Rural Enterprises Project as well as the district assembly’s effort to maintain and sustain the project. The District Offices operate the Business Advisory Centers initiated by the Rural Enterprises Project and these centers have become a model for national MSE policy in the country.

From Fanteakwa, the team moved to a local soap-making factory at Otuater. A small group made up of only 17 women and one man, the group has become the leading soap supplier in the district and beyond. At the factory the women were seen busily cutting, branding and packaging their soap. The Rural Enterprise Project, REP spotted this group during an exhibition and trade fair. According to the group, being in touch with REP has transformed their operations; they now make good sales, have created market linkages and also learnt new technologies and skills. They also support their husbands and are able to send their children to school. The District Chief Executive Officer promised the women a car to enable them transport their products to the market especially on market-days when the soap is in high demand.

The IOE team and officials of the South Akim RuralBank

The team moved from this point to Nankese, a cocoa farming community where the 2009 best rural bank, the South Akyim Rural Bank is headquartered. The bank was ranked the 20th on the Ghana Club 100 list in 2010. It enrolled as a participating Financial Institution of REP II in 2006 to deliver financial services to target micro and small enterprises in the district. According to the officials of the bank the establishment of the Business Advisory Centers, (BAC) has been very beneficial and the bank has collaborated effectively with the center to support project clients to establish their businesses. However it was noted that despite the bank’s large clientele, only three people applied for a matching grant which is provided by REP. Rural banks in the country lend to the rural clients but usually not for agricultural activities and 73 per cent of staff of these banks perceived agricultural lending to be riskier than other lending types. But at the South Akyim Rural Bank, 70 per cent of its clients are agro-processors making it agriculture-friendly.

The last point of call was the Milenovisi gari processing factory at Korkormu. The facility at the centre has been upgraded to a Good Practices Center. The group is also a good example of the value chain concept with 106 actors including farmers, traders, transporters and fabricators. We couldn’t have concluded the trip without visiting a gari processing factory.

Gari is one form of processed cassava and is eaten all over the country making it a marketable commodity. It is vital to reducing post-harvest food losses and increases food availability in Ghana. Gari, if stored properly can last for a year without going bad. Through REP//RTIMP the gari processing center has recorded tremendous success.

It was an exciting field trip seeing how much small scale business are improving the lives of the rural poor and contributing to the development of the country through project implementation. As we journeyed back to Accra, I was wondering whether these laudable projects could be sustained and maintained in view of the weak marketing opportunities.

Second Global AgriKnowledge Share Fair: After Action review #sfrome

2011-12-08T08:25:00.001+01:00

by Willem Bettink

Weeks after the closing of the Sharefair a large group of organizers, facilitators, volunteers, and presenters came together to do an After Action review(AAR). The AAR is a excellent knowledge sharing method to assess how things went: an event , a mission or a meeting. It allows you to benefit from the collective perspectives , experiences and learning of organizing and participating in a particular event .

The AAR for the Global Share fair was centred around a number of questions to collect people’s feedback. For example we asked: “What worked well and why?”; “What could have been done differently or better?”; “What surprised you ?”; and finally “What advice do you have for future share fair organizers”.

All expressed with enthusiasm that the Share fair was a great event given its spread, depth and diversity offered in the 9 themes resulting in more than 130 sessions. As one participant said: “The buzz in and around the IFAD building was very inspiring –I wish it could be like this always !!”

There was some very exciting and interesting stuff presented ranging from the numerous training sessions on knowledge methods, to more substantive topics such as “ how to extract fertilizer from marble dust”, how to improve working of a Community of Practice to three very inspiring and out of the box key note addresses by Etienne Wenger, Rob Burnett and Mark Davies

People liked the market fair lay out with the tent and the bigger and smaller meeting rooms –best if they were emptied of meeting tables. The graphics and communication gave a very colourful and exciting ‘feel ‘ and transformed the IFAD building into a big open and creative and stimulating place.

Alas only 4 daily issues were possible of the Daily Corriere- after which it had to close ….. and the Chief Editor is looking for a new challenge…

The social media coverage of the Global Share fair was very good: from the thousands of tweets to introducing the live twitter wall , live webcasting of key note addresses and thematic sessions, over 50 blogs of sessions and multiple video interviews and tons of pictures. All of this social reporting material helped and added value to the event for those who could not attend it in person and enabled writing of parts this publication.

In short it seems that the Second Global Agriknowledge Share fair was a big success. But was there anything that did not go well or could have been done differently or better? Yes …there was quite a lot that AAR participants came up with as could have been better or could be improved:

• The format and lay out of call for proposal, to be filled out and submitted by those who wished to present /share their story, was not done very well. It obliged the organizers to send out a second form to obtain a better focus by asking participants what would be the three take away messages ; and how they wished to organize their session and if they had any special requirements. In all this need to be changed for a future global share fair.

• The registration process resulted in more than 700 participants over the 4 days. Doing the registration felt like a steep learning curve- from no previous experience, finding and losing our ways through the hundreds of emails, to becoming registration experts by the end of the fair. A lot to be improved here – from earlier responses needed to whom requested financing, to the visa registration process. A software application may help in making it less burdensome on the eyes and sleep of the human actor….

• While people enjoyed the luxury choice from 130 sessions, it was felt there were far too many parallel sessions- consider quality versus quantity. Often one could not attend 1st choice due to the parallel nature. As one consequence several sessions had very few participants due to competing sessions. In future organizers should aim at a reduced number of sessions, thus allowing participants to go to more session and their preferred choices. Second one could try to join into one session similar topics e.g. a chat show as was done with social media , private sector and agricultural research.

• The social reporting team should have been led by dedicated person(s) and set –up earlier e.g. a month before the event in conjunction with draft programme. This would enable better planning of full coverage of session, seeking out needed skills in the social reporting team and build-up momentum and sharing of ideas amongst the team members. Do not ask facilitators to be at the same time social reporters-it proofed to be hard to focus on facilitation and collecting information for a blog afterwards- quality of one or both may suffer!

• Quality of content, presentation and chosen interaction during of sessions could be improved. First of all the facilitators of each session were identified and informed far too late, not allowing them enough time to interact and prepare with session presenters. Lack of clarity on knowledge sharing methods by presenters hampered inter-active nature of sessions. Finally consider better approach to determine the quality and richness of content at an early stage of submission for programme.

• The training day was hugely successful and did not build further through the program. Next time have training opportunities woven across the four days.

• An experiment tested at the KM4Dev face-to face meeting is that during the last day of a future Share fair, you ask people to spend 15 minutes to write a commitment to action. These commitment are then shared at the marketplace of commitments , so that people may find out what they can do together, harvest commitment to actions , and follow up 3-6 months to asseds what happened.

The above reflections, feedback and suggestions are just a selection of the wealth of insights harvested during the AAR sessions. We are going to solicit feedback from all 700 participants through a short electronic survey in early 2012. The aim is to assess what has been the impact of the Global Share fair on people’s behaviour, old and new work practices, and personal and professional networks. And in looking ahead we will ask you for new ideas, suggestions, or wishes you may have for any future share fair.

Agriculture In! (721 and counting...)

2011-12-07T15:35:00.012+01:00

by Jeff Brez in Durban

Should agriculture be on the climate change agenda? What impact would this have? The ball is in the court of COP 17 attendees to assess the game changing impact of negotiations at COP 17 in Durban.

If you are at the COP – come to booth 18 to show your skill at getting ‘Agriculture In!’ 721 COP attendees have already played.

IFAD teamed up with the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU) to design the game and raise awareness on agriculture’s role in climate change at COP 17 in Durban.

‘Agriculture In’ is a ball game with 3 targets designed to address the significance of agriculture and how it can contribute to poverty reduction, food security, building resilience, and improving environmental outcomes including reducing GHG emissions.

The Targets:

Green Climate Fund
SBSTA Work Programme
Mitigation Finance for Farmers

These are all opportunities for negotiators to ensure that the worlds 1 billion poor rural people, most of whom rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, benefit from climate finance.

“Poor smallholder farmers, typically women are on the front line of climate change impacts yet they don’t benefit enough from climate finance,” says Elwyn Grainger-Jones, Director of IFAD’s Environment and Climate Division, “climate finance can help scale up investments in sustainable agriculture and research that will help them adapt to changing weather conditions and contribute to global food security.”

“Agriculture is the foundation of most African economies and the most climate-sensitive sector so it is imperative that it forms part of the agenda at this year’s COP17,” said Ishmael Sunga, CEO of SACAU. “This game not only highlights that but also the specific areas of intervention such as the need for the establishment of Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) Work Program on Agriculture that covers both adaptation and mitigation and addresses the needs of African farmers.”

Journalists and all those attending the COP (especially negotiators!) are invited to test their ball skills while getting a better understanding of agriculture and its importance at stand 18 of the ICC/DEC.

Prizes allocated for winners name the many benefits for farmers and wider communities if agriculture is included: Improved Food Security, Lasting Poverty Reduction, Enhanced Biodiversity, Reduced GHG Emissions, More trees, More Resilient Livelihoods.

Making Climate-Smart “The New Normal in Agriculture"

2011-12-07T06:21:00.008+01:00

by Jeff Brez in Durban

Anticipation is building that sectoral text under the LCA may lead to the approval by the Parties of a work programme under SBSTA for agriculture here in Durban. The demand on the ground from farmers communities and governments for climate-smart agriculture as a means to tackle poverty reduction, food security, climate resilience, improved environmental outcomes and reduced emissions is already strong and continues to grow. Many feel that a SBSTA Work Programme would help agriculture take early action to determine the long-term investments needed to transform agriculture to meet future challenges.

Tina Joemat-Pettersson, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of South Africa, opened the Agriculture and Rural Development Day, this past Saturday, and told journalists, “Agriculture must adapt to a changing climate and at the same time contribute to reducing emissions. We have a huge dichotomy between smallholder and large-scale farming, but… smallholder farming is now also being seen as an opportunity for food security as well as economic growth… not just as a social development programme.”

Governments and development institutions, including IFAD, the World Bank, FAO, and others together with other partners have made great strides in promoting climate-smart approaches that meet the needs of farmers and poor rural people. There is also a call for climate finance to benefit smallholders and the rural poor – where poverty is concentrated – through both adaptation and mitigation financing. It is hoped that the Green Climate Fund, in this sense, will prioritize financing for approaches that reward “multiple benefit outcomes” (aka “co-benefits” in negotiation language): poverty reduction, food security, climate resilience and emissions reductions through climate-smart agriculture.

Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of IFAD, The U.N.’s rural poverty agency, delivered a keynote address at ARDD urging negotiators to recognize that “Government officials once believed that they had to choose between feeding their people and protecting nature. Now they realize that they can and must do both.” He continued, “negotiators need to recognize the critical importance of enabling smallholder farmers to become more resilient to climate change and to grow more food in environmentally sustainable, climate-smart ways,” he added.

The world’s 500 million smallholder farms will have to significantly increase their production and will have to do it in the face of more frequent extreme weather events and shifting weather conditions brought by climate change. The development community must continue its efforts to come together with governments to make climate smart practices the new normal in agriculture

“Out in their fields, farmers are already adapting to the changing climate and realizing that they must respect and preserve the environment if they are to feed their families and produce a surplus for markets,” Nwanze said. “And policymakers at the country level are citing the impact of extreme weather on their crop production and asking for climate change to be addressed in rural development projects.”

Simple maths draws the connection between climate change poverty reduction and agriculture into stark relief. 1.4 billion people live today in extreme poverty, under US$1.25 per day. One billion of them live in rural areas, and the majority of those depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. IFAD’s experience with climate smart agriculture in 40 countries, through 22 loans and 15 country-specific and regional grants is just one testament to this.

Climate-Smart Smallholder Products: a new product label ?

2011-12-06T11:33:00.013+01:00

by Jeff Brez, from COP 17 in Durban

At Agriculture and Rural Development Day (ARDD) at COP 17 in Durban, IFAD teamed up with Cafédirect and Fairtrade Africa to offer a learning event on “Getting Climate-Smart Smallholder Products to Market.” The case study was based on an IFAD public private partnership in São Tomé and Principe with the Government, communities, Cafédirect and other private sector companies. Read about the project, the objectives of the event, the moderator and speakers here.

The two main questions posed by moderator extraordinaire Matthew Wyatt of DFID, were simple. Can smallholders offer climate-smart products? Will consumers pay for them? He led a lively and focused discussion - thanks Matthew!

Cafédirect’s Wolfgang Weinmann said, “Access for smallholder farmers to added-value markets like climate-smart and ethical products clearly is the way forward. Plus, of course delivering high quality and absolute traceability. Our partnership with IFAD has been fantastic and allowed us to ensure, in a relatively short time span of 2 years, a great product for the UK market that delivers tangible economic, social and environmental impact for the São Tomé and Principe smallholder cocoa farmers.”

There was consensus that there is potential for smallholders to benefit from a “climate-smart” label , because:

Smallholders are natural providers of climate-smart products
Niche market opportunities such as organics and Fairtrade are bringing premiums to smallholders in São Tomé and Principe, where cocoa exports have increased ten-fold since 2004 through public-private partnerships
While climate smart smallholder agriculture is an undefined concept for consumers, they may be willing to pay more for a “climate smart” product if they better understand the full benefits to farmers , the environment and to them as well

Scaling up of a “climate smart concept ” would depend on:

Providing smallholders with knowledge sharing, technical support, and access to finance and markets
Developing metrics to demonstrate to consumers the benefits that accrue to farmers and to environment
Development and positioning of a “climate smart” label under either an existing product label or on its own

Nokutula Mhene of Fairtrade Africa was cautiously optimistic, “The role of consumers in influencing agricultural practices and policies is often overlooked. The growth of Fairtrade over the past decades is largely attributed to consumer support. Climate smart goods should have a place in the market but need to be integrated into already existing labelling initiatives.”

Carlos Seré, of IFAD said, “In addition to generating new technologies, increasing productivity and looking for ways to save labour to support climate-smart smallholder agriculture, climate-smart practices can be enabled by replacing inputs with knowledge – understanding the biology better and tweaking it. This implies a very robust research agenda and an equally ambitious knowledge sharing component. Shifting from existing systems to climate-smart systems – for example shifting to shade grown systems - can take years to achieve. Smallholders need support during the transition periods. And of course, we can never forget about the incentives for the producers: they have to be there.”

Learn more about how IFAD supported activities are benefiting smallholders and poor rural people in São Tomé and Principe.

IFAD scales innovations through the ‘Learning Routes’

2011-12-05T18:00:00.001+01:00

by Valentina Gullotta Sauve

On 27 October, IFAD held an informal lunch‐time seminar on the “Learning Routes” as a knowledge management and capacity building tool to scale up best practices and innovations during the “Scaling Up the Fight against Rural Poverty” Event.

Ariel Halpern (PROCASUR) and Roberto Haudry (IFAD) ‐ with the intervention of Paineto Baluku from Uganda (Bukonzo Cooperative, partner of PROCASUR)‐ presented PROCASUR and the learning routes methodology showing how knowledge sharing can open learning and innovation scale up spaces.

PROCASUR started as a Latin America and Caribbean regional training programme for IFAD and it is now, fifteen years later working at a global scale, implementing Learning Route Programmes for Latin America, East and Southern Africa and Asia and Pacific divisions of IFAD.

PROCASUR’s objective is to feed learning loops by making visible the voices of the ones that are invisible.

‘Already being in this room is an achievement for PROCASUR’, Ariel said, because it is an opportunity to make visible an approach and a movement to which many partners are involved and engaged. The LR is a methodology but also a way to promote rural development knowledge market with a positive inclusion of project staff and grass root organizations learning and local champions: this methodology is allowing IFAD projects approaches and tools to stay after closed, being recreated, adapted and expanded.

Helen Gillman from IFAD intervened underlining the fact that the Learning Routes are not just field trips or study tour, but a systematized journey with an intensive learning process, considering carefully the design, implementation and follow up phase.

Replying to Johannes Linn’s final question on how PROCASUR see itself in 5 years from now, it was explained that PROCASUR wants to keep the strategic partnership with IFAD on its expansion process and complement each other role.

Next 5 years vision is to reach out an increasing number of rural people in the Global South offering and demanding knowledge and skills generated by practicing rural poverty in the front line. Establishing this network, or hub as Ariel calls it, bring to a successful adaptation and adoption of the Learning Route methodology to the regional settings where IFAD is operating.
Check this cartoon to understand what a is Learning Route is and visit PROCASUR site in Spanish and English

Climate-Smart Agriculture: Embrace Complexity!

2011-12-05T12:30:00.015+01:00

by Jeff Brez, from COP 17 in Durban

At the IFAD-FAO-WFP Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) side event here in Durban, Foua Toloa, the Head of the Government of Tokelau, a small island country in the South Pacific, made an impassioned plea for climate justice for his country. To achieve climate smart agriculture he called for the revival and integration of traditional practices in addition to financing for research, and adaptation and mitigation actions. “We don’t want to end up a coral shelf under the surface of the sea,” he said. Tokelau has taken the drastic measure of banning the import of pesticides and fertilizer for their coconut production, he told us, because cyclones brought run off and poorly stored chemicals into their lagoons, causing green algae blooms that damaged their crucial fisheries-based livelihoods. For them, a single-benefit approach for agriculture did not work. They need an integrated solution.

Tekalign Mamo, Minister of State, Advisor to Ministry of Agriculture, for Ethiopia, shared that while there is an understanding that agro-ecological approaches are key to building climate resilience, and farmers see the advantages, there are nonetheless challenges for farmers. The farmers face enormous challenges to leaving organic material on the soil to feed and protect it because they use the organic material for fuel, fodder and other uses.

The Government is supporting the use of a range of organic materials including grasses and livestock-noxious weeds to feed the soil and provide organic matter for composting. But farmers, communities and households all have specific needs and lifestyles, so they need to be the ones to define what is climate smart agriculture in their context. They, too, need integrated solutions.

For a long time now, there has been universal acknowledgement that uncertainty of climate impacts must not slow our response and action. What we heard at the side event, from speakers and attendees alike, is that complexity must also not slow our response and action. To unlock the correct responses in complex circumstances, the solution is knowledge sharing, institutional support, and gender-focused extension services that interact with empowered farmers organizations.

Elwyn Grainger-Jones, IFAD’s Director of Environment and Climate, said CSA is more knowledge intensive than the 30-year old green revolution approach. Now there is a wide range of possible approaches that are knowledge intensive and require more social mobilization. We need more of this without imposing generic solutions, and must look across landscapes for solutions that work for farmers rather than only look at specific sector projects.

A REDD+ programme in Ethiopia, Minister Mamo offered, is financing an approach that links food security, food production and poverty reduction through a 2005 national strategy. The combination of: rehabilitation of 9 million hectares of land to increase productivity; and a productive safety net programme that addresses food insecure areas for 7 million + people through food or cash transfer to families has put more kids in school, and led to better health. This, Minister Mamo stressed, is a testament to the need for cross-sectoral approaches based in national level planning.

Peter Holmgren, Director of FAO’s Climate, Energy and Tenure Division pointed out that, “It is only the farmer that can define what is smart in the end.” He also mentioned how REDD+ should be part of a package built into landscape approaches to agriculture. Only then can we get leverage and finance for agriculture.

Carlo Scaramella, Director of Climate change and Disaster Risk Reduction at WFP, reminded attendees that CSA needs to deliver multiple benefits to vulnerable communities - in terms of food and nutrition security, community and women's empowerment, livelihoods resilience and environmental rehabilitation. It must be driven by a people-centred approach. At the same time, government leadership is key for scaling up from the community to the national level.

Dennis Garrity of ICRAF (World Agroforestry Center) had the last word, reminding us all that there are huge opportunities for scaling up climate-smart agriculture through knowledge intensive but low cash investments. Here is what he said, more or less: “We need radically different scaling up methodologies for different solutions: cash intensive irrigation solutions where financial and technical inputs are key. But there are also solutions in agro-ecological approaches that are nearly cash-zero in terms of outside needs, so scaling up can be done with community mobilization and farmer to farmer knowledge sharing to get tremendous results. In Niger 5 million hectares have been transformed through agro-ecological approaches, in Mali 500 thousand hectares… gov’t investment almost zero but still great outcomes for farmers and communities.”The event took place on Friday, 2 December, organized by the United Nations Rome-Based Agencies, IFAD, FAO and WFP, and was ably moderated by Dyborn Chibonga, CEO of the National Association of Smallholder Farmers in Malawi.

Smallholders critical to reigniting rural development in Asia #globaldev

2011-11-29T09:13:00.001+01:00

By Thomas Rath, Country Programme Manager, Asia and the Pacific Division

Rural poverty has declined throughout Asia and the overall economic performance has increased. Agricultural development has played a major role in these improvements with smallholder farmers in the lead. Around the world they already feed almost a third of the world’s population and produce 80 per ent of the food consumed in the developing world. But we need to take smallholder agriculture to the next level to make sure rural communities can play an important role in producing enough food for a growing population.

A good opportunity for Asian smallholders to boost their productivity and increase their incomes coincides with an important change in the Asian food retailing market. Supermarkets with global links have emerged, particularly in South East Asia, responding to changes in life styles, the liberalization of retail trade and the entry of foreign direct investment in Asia-Pacific countries. By 2015, supermarkets in China are expected to reach 62 per cent market share, while Malaysia is expected to reach 61 per cent, Thailand 48 per cent, and the Philippines 36 per cent.

Supermarket chains can offer farmers better deals – higher prices and greater certainty of selling the product than traditional supply chains. But in return farmers are obliged to meet stringent quality requirements and adhere to food safety standards. Also supermarkets usually prefer dealing with few large farmers rather than many small farmers.

Producers’ associations or cooperatives can help small producers gain a footing in international food retailing. Belonging to an organized group allows them to bulk produce, reduce costs through economies of scale and, perhaps most importantly, to strengthen their bargaining power with private-sector actors. Membership can also bring access to financial, processing and business service. All of which are key to empowering farmers to deal with the private sector on a more level playing field.

One of the most well-known producer organizations in Asia is the Indian dairy cooperative. It comprises 12 million members, including landless labourers and women, and produces 22 per cent of India’s milk supply. In China, a group of small scale growers, aided by the local government, formed the Ruoheng watermelon cooperative, which then sold directly to wholesalers, retailers and supermarkets. Due to its timely delivery, quality, and marketing success, the cooperative’s membership increased from 29 to 152, and its farmed area increased from 0.2 hectare in 1992 to thousands of hectares in 2005.

The ability of smallholder farmers to increase their production in a sustainable way is enormously important. Not only to further reducing rural poverty in Asia, but also to feeding the world’s growing population and resolving pressing environmental and climate challenges. Enabling smallholder farmers to benefit from the proliferation of supermarkets and export opportunities in the region can set the stage for new progress in overcoming rural poverty and hunger in Asia. Our focus should be on helping them develop the knowledge and the other tools they will need to do precisely that.

Originally posted on Business fights poverty blog

Agriculture in Rwanda: Ownership and Improving Delivery #hlf4

2011-11-28T12:39:00.001+01:00

By Agnes Matilda Kalibata, Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources of Rwanda

As the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness held in Busan, South Korea, commences, Rwanda has a chance to convey its way of doing business in a ever–changing aid architecture. The meeting centers on the Paris Declaration, a tool for donors and developing countries to hold each other to account. In Busan, a large and increasingly mixed community of development stakeholders will look back while seeking to outline the future of aid. Rwanda’s experiences are particularly valid for discussion in Busan. Rwanda’s story of aid effectiveness is one of strong leadership and meeting the challenges faced in managing developmental assistance.

From the President’s lead, vision and ownership has allowed Rwanda to stay focused. In the agriculture sector, over the past four years Rwanda has received strong support both from aid multilaterals and bilaterals with different modalities, to emerging countries such as India and Brazil, that have begun to provide public and importantly private sector investment in the country, to new cross-cutting funds such as Climate Change funding. Rwanda’s Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) has sought to improve the efficiency of government structures to deal with various development interventions. Primarily, the sector strategy, the Plan for the Transformation of Agriculture II (PSTA II), allows us to streamline and harmonize assistance through our programs that focus on, among others, irrigation, crop intensification through input provision, post-harvest handling and storage improvements and export promotion. This year, due to this clarity, time-bound respect for results and strong programming, numerous bilaterals, such as DFID and USAID, are seeking to provide budget support to the agriculture sector.

The last four years have been characterized by turning these investments and support into food security and poverty reduction for Rwandans. Rwanda has moved from a food insecure country with 20 out of the 30 district labeled food insecure by FAO standards to a food secure nation with no single district below the required food needs. In August 2007, Rwanda initiated the Crop Intensification Program to increase both the levels of production and productivity amidst the various challenges that Rwanda faces. Key pillars of this effort include, land consolidation, input access, reduction of post harvest losses and access to markets. The program ensures that every farmer, however small, has access to improved seeds, fertilizers, extension and a market opportunity. From a country that was in the past characterized by chronic food insecurity, Rwanda’s yields have quadrupled compared to what it was four years ago.

In many ways Rwanda is a microcosm of the global future of agriculture – a world in which countries have to maintain food production in the face of decreasing arable lands, rising fuel prices, increasing populations and an increasingly volatile climate. For Rwanda, in particular, these challenges will not go away. Therefore, to stand the best chance in developing the country and reducing poverty, how we do the business of development is paramount. The meeting in Busan is a chance to improve this business. From a zero tolerance to corruption to upholding Paris Declaration principles, Rwanda has much to contribute to the Busan meeting.

Also published in TerraViva

“Happiest man in Africa…….and change is possible….”.

2011-11-22T14:01:00.001+01:00

By Willem Bettink

I participated in the annual regional implementation workshop of the East andSouthern Africa region. A full week immersionin Africa, to be more precise in northern Tanzania, at the foot of mount Kilamanjaro. It wasan exciting and dynamic 4 days, not inthe least thanks to “veteran” Edward Chumamoto. He facilitated -189 people-with grand style, a sense of humour and enormous skill –a true pleasure!

The project coordinators in the region decided last year toradically change the format as they felt there was not enough interaction andadded value generated. The workshopembraced the open space methodologywhich generated many unexpected sessions about a variety topics from learningroutes, communication and social media, gender equality and many more.

The theme of this workshop was: Managing for Impact-oneof those development concepts thatappear clear at face value, but are not . As a participants said : “over these4 days we have unpacked the concept and it has become clearer for me what itmeans to me in my work in our project”.

Over the days we unpacked the managing for impact into itskey elements from the perspective of a project team . One of the results was a practical diagnostic toolreferred to as the learning wheel for managing for impact. It brings together 12 elements that enable a project team todiagnose its performance.

The outcome of this diagnosis enables a team to discuss andagree on corrective actions to improve its delivery to achieve impact. One ofthese elements is “ continuous experimentation with new ideas andapproaches as a source of innovation and performance improvement”.

Almost all- if not all- development programmes are changemanagement programmes. Research and our own experience has proven that a typical organizational change programme has a 20-30% success rate. Or if we look at innovation and start–up businesses: only 10-15% make it through year 1 and go on to achieve sustainable profits.

If we truly believe in “managing for impact", it implies that project teams, given thechange and innovativeness of development programmes, continuously need to perform at the top oftheir toes. Delivery has to be of an exceptional quality while it isconditioned by known obstacles , unplanned interferences, unexpected naturaldisasters and what have you.

This implies that a project team needs to have a strong predisposition to openly reflect upon its challenges andmistakes , harvest the learning (in particular from failed attempts ) andshare this learning with itsstakeholders.

In my opinion , managing for impact is closely linked toreturn on investment. If we do not focus persistently on achieving impact,creating value, we are not ensuring thepay-off to the rural poor for what they invest to engage with the changes andinnovations promoted by development programmes.

A final personalnote: that change is possible whether at personal, process, technological level I am strongly convinced off. While I was inArusha I witnessed the transformation ofa colleague to be the happiest man in Africa.

Managing for impact: learning from successes and failures

2011-11-17T04:13:00.001+01:00

The East and Southern Africa (ESA) annual workshop focusing on managing for impact kicked off on 14 November in Arusha, Tanzania. The event brings together 200 participants from 17 countries.

This is a special event on many fronts. To start with, the participants warmly welcomed colleagues from South Sudan. Secondly, they bid farewell to Ides de Willebois, who is moving on to lead the West and Central Africa division. And last but not least, this is a unique event because for the first time, participants have embraced moving away their from traditional way of doing workshops and have embraced knowledge sharing methods.

Ides de Willebois in his opening remarks reiterated the fact this is a learning and sharing event. “Without learning and sharing we cannot improve and we cannot have impact”. He also went on to say that “we need to have a better understanding of what we do, so that we can do it better.”

In concluding his remarks, de Willebois mentioned that he is planning to start an exchange visit between East and Southern Africa and West and Central Africa. “I hope that West and Central Africa colleagues will join next year’s annual event, so that they can learn from your experience”.

Breaking the mould

Whenever you decide to innovate or break away from business as usual, there is some apprehension. You feel gratified when breaking the mould ends up being successful and resonates with the expectations. And this is exactly what happened at the ESA event.

It was so refreshing to see 200+ participants embrace knowledge sharing methods such as openspace, spectogramme and world cafe type discussions. Thanks to these participatory methods, they started to mingle, bond and in no time they got to know each other.

In the process, they heard many stories, including one about how ESA implementation workshops evolved from a being top-down loan administration events to more learning events owned and organized by the projects.

The majestic mount Kilimanjaro and the Kalali women dairy cooperative

As a child, when school was over, I would be counting the days so that I could join my grandmother in Mount Damavand. Damavand is Persia’s tallest mountain in the Alborz mountain range. Grandma had these wonderful stories about mount Everest, the far way mount Fuji and then a majestic mountain in Africa - mount Kilimanjaro.

I was intrigued by mount Kilimanjaro, because as a I child I found it difficult to fathom that Africa had mountains. So, on Monday when we had to sign-up for the field trips, I could not believe that finally I would be able to see this far far away mountain.

Unfortunately the majestic mount Kilimanjaro decided to remain pretty veiled and the clouds did not cooperate. But nonetheless, seeing it was an emotional moment and brought back many fond childhood memories.

We then moved on to visit the Kalali women dairy cooperative. This cooperative is part of the Agricultural Sector Development Programme where IFAD is investing loan funds in supplementing financing to the nationwide development programme, to counteract the depletion of the initial funds committed by development partners as part of a basket fund arrangement.

The cooperative is located in Machame division, Hai district in Kilimanjaro region. Inspired by a local daily community business, this cooperative was established with 132 members in 1988. The cooperative’s goal is to:

increase income of poor rural households, particularly women in the area through a number of different income generating activities
improve lives of orphans and provide assistance to poor families who were unable to provide education and sound nutrition for their children

“To get going the cooperative members contributed 1000 shillings each and payed a membership fee of 50 shillings,” explained Nancy Manasseh Kidin, the cooperative’s chairperson.

Considering their scarce income, these monies were paid in 4 installments. The cooperative started with 8 dairy cows. In 1995 they had 41 dairy cows.

Considering the vital role women play in rural societies, the cooperative decided that women headed-households were the ones to receive the cows. They agreed that the person who receives the cow for a period of seven months would:

give one litre of milk a day to the orphanage
give the calves to other women headed-household and members of the cooperative

As a result in a short time, 24 women who had signed up to this deal managed to provide dairy cows to 117 cooperative members.

Today the cooperative has a total of 260 members.

Diversifying activities

These industrious women used their income to diversify their business. In the 90s they bought themselves a milling machine.

“We provided milling service in the local market and expanded our business by buying a container to store the maize”, said Kidin.

“We also used the profits from the milling business to buy seeds.”

In 1993, they went one step further and bought themselves an electric machine and donated their diesel operated milling machine to another women group.

With the profit from their milling business they bought feed for the cows.

A terrible blow

They had a flourishing business, produced milk in abundance and sold this to a company in Arusha, thinking that a company is a reliable partner.

“We failed to ask for the money upfront and the company failed to pay us 12,000,000 schillings”, said Kidin.

This was a terrible blow for them. The community lost confidence in cooperatives and felt let down.

This mishap taught the cooperative an important lesson: never accept an “IOU”, always finish a transaction, sell, get your money and go on.

Despite this set back, they managed to back on their feet, thanks to the generous contribution of Italians.

A new door opens: dairy processing

The Italians provided them processing instruments and that is how they started making butter and cheese.

Today they produce:

400-800 litres of milk a day
10-20kg of cheese per day
50-95 packs of butter per week
400-600 packs of yogurt per week

They keep track of their daily production and make some impressive graphs without using Excel. They also have a sophisticated booking keeping practice.

They package their products and have a registered trademark. “We sell the dairy products at Moshi, to grocery stores, to hotels and send our cheese and butter all the way to Zanzibar”, explains a proud Kidin.

The cooperative has the necessary certification to package its product, however, they are faced with the challenge of not having adequate technical support. This means they are unable to take their business to the next step and benefit from industry’s best practice.

One thing that we observed was the BEST BEFORE DATE on their products. Without exception their products seem to have a shelf life of one year!!!!

Kidin shared with us that the cooperative aspires to be able to:

procure large 50 litre metal containers to store the milk instead of using plastic containers
avail themselves of technical expertise and training so that their products are of high quality meet regional standards, have bar codes and can compete with Kenyan products
have access to veterinary service
have access to East African Community Market and get packaging machinery
have all the women of the community become members of the cooperative
become a renown cooperative both inside and outside Tanzania

In conducting their business, the cooperative has learnt the importance of:

providing thorough and in depth training to the machine operators, so that they do not only know how to operate the machine, but also maintain it properly
understanding the market demand and their potential competitors
doing a good market search before buying equipment and better understanding what is needed and how a piece of equipment can help them

Expanding the business and facing new challenges

With a relatively good income from their dairy business, the cooperative bought a sunflower oil pressing machine and started a savings credit cooperative (SACCOS).

The SACCOS has 375 members and started with a capital of 3.2million schillings.

The older women of the community put their savings in the SACCOS and the more business oriented women use the SACCOS to get a loan. The loans have an interest rate of 3%.

Kidin shares with us that the SACCOS are faced with two challenges:

underpayment
corruption

This has led to a loss of 22 million schillings. This loss made the community understand the importance of choosing right people as SACCOS board members. They now know that a board member:

needs to be a trusted member of the community
one who understands the ins and outs of the business and entire process
one who has knowledge of financial management so that they can play a supervisory role, detect collusion and immediately take corrective actions

Investing in health and eduction of young people

The community is committed to provide education for the children and young people - especially to orphaned children and those from less advantaged families.

They use their profits to send children from disadvantaged families to school and are also assisted by Italians who are sponsoring a number of children and putting them through school.

Their vision is that every child has to go to school.

Their sustained programme of investing in education of their children is one of their great successes. Thanks to this initiative many young people have successfully finished school, obtained their degree and now serve as accountants, agriculture specialists, engineers and health workers.

Many have heard of WFP’s school feeding programme. Well, the Kalali women dairy cooperative runs a similar programme - they support school feeding by providing one glass of milk per class.

The cooperative challenges

Kidin shared with us the cooperative challenges:

continuous power cuts which lasts days
lack of access to adequate and state of the art machinery for packaging and conservation so that they are able to compete in the market
lack of access to technical expertise to take the business to its next level
lack of local talents and expertise
lack of access to appropriate equipment for conservation
high taxation and cumbersome regulations
competition with Kenyan products

The cooperatives aspirations

Kidin and the cooperative members aspire to:

have all women in the area become members of the cooperative
give dividends to all the members and not just provide contributions in kind
create more employment opportunities
send all children to school
expand the sunflower pressing business
innovate and continuously provide new services to the community
provide capacity building
build technical and leadership skills and groom local talents
set up a milk bar so that community members understand that there are other options to drinking alcohol
do more follow-ups and have a better feel what you can realistically achieve
develop robust business plans

We cannot but wish this group of hardworking and resilient women the best of luck. They are a great example of how when a community takes development in their hands, despite set back, they are able to move on and bring about change. I am sure the Kalali women dairy cooperative will go from success to success and manage to fulfill all their aspirations and be a model for many more women.

IFAD’s Emission Reduction Plan, 8 November 2011. Emissions reduction depends on us!We cause them, we can reduce them.

2011-11-15T10:12:00.001+01:00

We are all concerned about climate change, and we are all aware of the impact of emissions on climate change. We know that continued emissions at or above current rates would cause further warming of the planet and cause many changes in the global climate system (e.g. increase risk of flooding and drought in certain areas). However, our emissions rather than decreasing are increasing; a trend that needs to be reversed urgently. That is why, the “UN system is collectively developing a climate-neutral approach for its premises and operations. The responsibility for the future lies in our hands. Let change begin at home” (foreword by the UN Secretary-General to “Moving Towards a Climate Neutral UN) and we also committed to play a proactive role in moving towards a climate neutral UN.
The workshop held on 8 November was a great opportunity to:

•    be briefed on what we have done thus far to reduce emissions
•    understand why we need to develop and implement an IFAD   emission reduction plan
•    generate ideas that can impact on emissions reduction
•    assess the viability of the ideas proposed during the workshop.

The good news is that a number of concrete actions with a view to reduce emissions have already been taken, some examples:

•    green building certification award at the Gold level in recognition of IFAD’s state-of-art HQ
•    reduction in consumption of electricity from 2009 to 2010
•    reduced use of plastic water bottles by installing drinking water fountains
•    shuttle bus service from/to metro station to discourage the use of private cars
•    reduction in paper consumption by implementing double-sided printing
•    implementation of parking fees to encourage the use of public transportation
•    video-conference facilities to reduce the number of travels to attend meetings.

Much has been done, but more needs to be done. Elina Virtanen and Pasi Rinne, the experts from Gaia Innovative Solutions for Sustainability, presented the baseline figures for reporting on IFAD’s emissions. Did you know that IFAD total emissions in 2009 were equivalent to 5089 tCO2 ?

Did you know that from 2009 to 2010 IFAD emissions have increased by 10 % and that air travel emissions have increased by 17 %?

Did you know that in 2009 IFAD emissions per staff were equal to 5,7 tCO2 ; far from a sustainable level! Based on IPCC estimates, in 2050 the emissions per person should be 2.8 t CO2.

While it's true that IFAD compared to other UN organizations has lower emissions, numbers still show how far we are from a sustainable emission level for our planet. Figures tell us we have to start planning today to achieve tomorrow’s targets. IFAD’s emission reduction plan is the tool we will be using to:

•    define where we are today in terms of emissions caused
•    identify the required actions to reduce emissions
•    indicate realistic objectives and timeline.

We, as participants of the workshop, had the chance to “scout for ” ideas on how to further reduce emissions in the following areas:

•    facility
•    paper consumption and waste
•    ICT (energy efficiency and enabling virtual meetings)
•    travel
•    commuting
•    procurement
•    others (thinking out of the box)


It’s amazing how many ideas were “sticked”   in about 30 minutes. I was also impressed by the number of “green” stickers that we used to mark the proposed actions as “realistic” and “viable” , in other words, actions that could be included in IFAD’s emission reduction plan.
The ones I liked the most?

Adopt a sustainable procurement policy that takes into account the environmental impact of products and services

All staff teleworking 1 day a week

"Think big" and have a low-carbon cafeteria

Adopt a green travel policy

As Matthias Meyerhans, director ADM, pointed out “we have to change our habits if we intend to seriously pursue climate neutrality …..only if we as staff member and environmental conscious citizens are willing to change, significant emissions reduction can be achieved”

IFAD’s emission reduction plan is about us, about the way we will be working in the coming years. If you did not have the chance to participate in the workshop and are interested in knowing more about the actions proposed, you can still contribute by sharing your ideas through yammer

“Our programs focus increasingly on adaptation to climate change and it is right that we look for measures to reduce emissions in our own activities.”

Elwyn Grainger-Jones, Director ECD

Let's make climate change talks inclusive

2011-11-14T09:24:00.001+01:00

by Prof. M.S. Swaminathan Member of Parliament of India, Rajya Sabha, and Chairman, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation and Kanayo F. Nwanze, IFAD President

Price volatility and the persistence of widespread and hidden hunger underline the need for enhancing the productivity and profitability of smallholder agriculture in an environmentally sustainable manner.

When world leaders sit down again to discuss climate change, we hope that the people who live and work on the world's 500 million small farms will be with them, at least in spirit. Their voice — and the issue of agriculture as a whole — has, for too long, been missing from the conversation. But without increased support to smallholder farmers now, the number of hungry people will grow, and future food security will be placed in jeopardy.

The upcoming 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012 — marking the twentieth anniversary of the landmark Earth Summit that produced Agenda 21, “a roadmap” for sustainable development — will both need to ensure that agriculture and the world's smallholder farmers are high on the agenda if we are to overcome the many challenges we face in achieving the Millennium Development Goal 1.

The front line
In the last 20 years the global population has risen from about 5.3 billion to seven billion; the reality of climate change has been accepted beyond doubt; and the number of hungry people in the world has remained stubbornly around the one billion mark. Meanwhile, aid to agriculture has only just recently begun to pick up after decades of stagnation. More needs to be done — a lot more — and supporting smallholder farmers must be at the heart of any agenda.

The rural poor across the world, including India, have contributed little to human-induced climate change, yet they are on the front line in coping with its effects. Farmers can no longer rely on historical averages for rainfall and temperature, and the more frequent and extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods, can spell disaster. And there are new threats, such as sea level rise and the impact of melting glaciers on water supply.

How significant are small farms? As many as two billion people worldwide depend on them for their food and livelihood. Smallholder farmers in India produce 41 per cent of the country's food grains, and other food items that contribute to local and national food security. Small farmers cannot be ignored, and special attention must be given to the most vulnerable groups — particularly women, who make up a large percentage of farmers in the developing world.

Small farms also add up to big business: In the world's 50 least developed countries, agriculture is the backbone of the economy, accounting for 30 to 60 per cent of Gross Domestic Product and employing as much as 70 per cent or more of the workforce. Addressing the plight of smallholders isn't just a matter of equity, it's a necessity if we are going to be able to feed ourselves in the future. Smallholders farm 80 per cent of the total farmland in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia. If we don't help them to adapt to climate change, their achievements — feeding a large portion of humanity — will be endangered.

With appropriate support, smallholders can play a key role in protecting our environment, for example through actions that contribute to carbon sequestration and limit carbon emissions (planting and maintaining forests, engaging in agro-forestry activities, managing rangelands and rice lands, and watershed protection that limits deforestation and soil erosion).

To continue farming in a sustainable way in the face of climate change, rural women and men need to be given the resources to cope with the challenges. Smallholder farmers need support such as resilience-building technologies (including drought- and salt-tolerant seed varieties and new methods of rainwater harvesting), and training in sustainable practices of conservation agriculture, such as minimum-till farming to reduce erosion and moisture loss. Investing in adaptation measures now will be far less costly than in the future.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the M.S. Swaminathan Foundation, together with the government of India and other partners, have undertaken a range of projects to do just that.

For example, in Tamil Nadu, we have been supporting rural communities to produce and market nutri-cereals like millet, which can easily grow in dry and arid environments. We worked with smallholder farmers to use simple techniques to increase their yields, while also helping rural women create and market modern recipes — for example, a millet malt drink now being sold in major health food stores in India. The result has been not only increased food for the community, but also increased income and non-farm employment opportunities.

To help farmers adapt to increasingly dry conditions, a programme in Chhattisgarh has expanded cultivation of traditionally produced Niger seed oil, which grows well in areas that receive little rain. Land and forest regeneration were promoted to improve soil structure and moisture levels, and solar energy technology and biogas digesters have been introduced, which reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as the need for fuelwood. Another project in the northeast has helped restore degraded jhumland and has benefited almost 40,000 households in 860 villages.

Climate-resilient sustainable agriculture requires knowledge. Successful projects such as these can provide a model for others to follow. Knowledge transfer that brings the benefits of research from the laboratory to the farm is essential.

Programmes targeted at vulnerable groups such as women and tribal communities are particularly important. IFAD-supported programmes and projects in India promote tribal development by building and strengthening grassroots institutions that enable vulnerable people to plan and manage their own development, negotiate improved entitlements, and broaden their livelihood opportunities. Conferences and talks among world leaders can do many things but they don't feed people. We hope that leaders will keep in mind those who do: the smallholder farmers. Price volatility and the persistence of widespread, endemic and hidden hunger underline the need for urgent attention to enhancing the productivity and profitability of smallholder agriculture in an environmentally sustainable manner. This is the pathway to increasing agriculture's contribution to climate change mitigation as well as to sustainable food security.

Originally published in The Hindu

ZNFU4455: An SMS service offering smallholder producers in Zambia a brighter future #ict4d

2011-11-12T15:19:00.001+01:00

Once a luxury item, mobile telephony is now a catalyst to bring about economic development and social inclusion in developing countries, especially in Africa. For economist Jeffry Sachs “mobile telephony is the single most transformative technology for development”.

Mobile phone numbers talk for themselves. According to International Telecommunication Union (ITU) the number of mobile phone subscriptions worldwide has reached 4.6 billion. ITU estimates show that in sub-Saharan Africa there is 60% mobile coverage and one-third of the population has a mobile subscription.

Over the last decades we’ve seen the socio-economic benefits of mobile telephony on the lives of many poor rural people. We’ve seen how thanks to mobile phones those who previously were both socially and economically excluded are now actively participating in the economy and are able to connect with their families and friends. We’ve seen how mobile phone supports bottom-up economic development, provides entrepreneurship opportunities and gives voice to poor rural people and the voiceless.

Experts categorize the benefits of the mobile telephony in three categories:

incremental: improving the speed and efficiency of what people already do
transformational: offering something new such as comprehensive agricultural services (what to plant when, where to buy inputs, access to price information, potential buyers, transport, pest control and more)
productive: offering employment and income opportunity

Next time you are in Zambia, ask a smallholder producer, what is your lucky number. And do not be surprised if they say: “ZNFU4455”.

ZUFU4455 is a market information service open to all smallholder producers and traders, a service that encapsulates and touches on all three categories of benefits of mobile phone listed above.

Designed in 2006 with the assistance of IFAD-funded smallholder enterprise marketing programme and in cooperation with the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU), ZNFU4455 provides accurate and up-to-date agriculture and market information covering the entire value chain. It allows smallholder producers to make informed decision about what to grow, volumes required, storage, processing, marketing and investment opportunities.

ZNFU4455’s prime objective is to make markets functional for smallholder producers and traders. The service provides a list of 180 traders - 50% of whom are active - and their offer for 15 commodities. To find the best price on offer, smallholder producers and traders send an SMS message to 4455 containing the first four letters of the commodity and the district or province. They immediately receive a text message listing the best prices and codes designating the buyers offering them. After selecting the buyer that best responds to their needs, farmers send a second SMS with the buyer’s code. A text message is returned with the contact name and phone number. Farmers are then able to phone the buyer and start trading. Each message costs around US$0.15.

This demand-driven service responds to the evolving needs of the Zambia smallholder farmers and traders. It has helped reverse the trend of smallholder producers being exploited and passive players to becoming successful entrepeneurs by addressing challenges such as:

limited access to credit
limited access to price information
limited access to appropriate technology
limited business and negotiating skills
weak organizations
weak bargaining power
poor access to transport networks
little or no knowledge of market trends

The success of this service is manifold. To start with, it benefitted from an excellent marketing campaign. It’s business model is based on making revenue through advertisement and sponsorships.

It is one of those few IT applications that has little bells and whistles, it is easy to understand and use. It is a service that provides information upon request, as opposed to indiscriminately pushing content. It does so through different means such as cellphone (SMS), internet and radio. The radio programme is broadcast in seven local languages and in English.

Most importantly, it got the government’s full support and is an integral part of the national agricultural policy. Zambia’s good rural coverage of mobile phones and the fact that it is hosted in a credible institution, such as Zambia National Farmers Union, with a strong management team have contributed to its impressive success.

Between its launch in August 2006 and August 2009, ZNFU4455 managed to improve the bargaining power of smallholder producers, by providing them better access to markets and allowing them to deal with traders on an equal footing. Farmers have managed to reduce their transaction costs, are now producing more high value produces and targeting different markets. Thanks to the weekly updates, they are no longer overproducing, thus eliminating storage challenges.

Policy makers are using ZNFU4455 up-to-date information to identify trends in price fluctuations and to flag emergent and imminent food security challenges.

To date, 90 percent of traders and 60 per cent of the Zambian farmers have benefitted from ZNFU4455. Forty percent have managed to negotiate better prices, 52 per cent have sold their products to different traders and buyers, 23 per cent managed to build new trading relationships, more than 50 per cent increased their income, 15 per cent of initial SMS messages to the system led directly to farmers selling their produce, and over 90 per cent of the calls to buyers led to transactions.

ZNFU4455 and many other similar initiative and services highlight the fact that developing countries see and want mobile phones as the preferred information delivery system. At the same time, there is enough evidence that poor rural people are willing to spend part of their income on such services. The challenge now is to move beyond pilots and make sure that we systematically embed and mainstream ICT4D activities and projects in rural development projects and programmes so that we can have many more successful experiences such as ZNFU4455.

For more information visit http://farmprices.co.zm/

Recognizing the importance of rural institutions to socio-economic development: 2012 The International Year of Cooperatives.

2011-10-31T17:04:00.005+01:00

2012 has been declared by the United Nations (UN) as the International Year of Cooperatives. However, it all starts today on the 31st October, when the year is officially launched at the UN Headquarters in New York.

At the launch the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) will host a side event that focuses on agricultural cooperatives and their importance for food security. The event will be webcast and you can tune in at 1.15 pm (GMT -4).

Cooperatives are business enterprises owned and controlled by the members they serve. The difference between cooperatives and other types of businesses lies in the importance of keeping the balance between pursuing profit and meeting the interests of the community and their members. According to ILO cooperatives provide 100 million jobs worldwide. Agricultural cooperatives are important in supporting small agricultural producers and marginalized groups because they create sustainable rural employment, and they facilitate access to markets, food and productive assets. They also help them influence policy and decision making.

For the International Year of Cooperatives and beyond, the three Rome-based United Nations agencies (FAO, IFAD and WFP) will continue to raise awareness and support rural institutions, farmer and producer associations, and cooperatives.

For more information: Agricultural Cooperatives: Paving the way for Food Security and Rural Development.

Photo credit: ©IFAD/Radhika Chalasani

Africa's small farmers - a change of thinking

2011-10-27T15:15:00.004+02:00

by Mohamed Beavogui

As an African but also a development practitioner, I've seen a lot of good ideas and best intentions left broken and long forgotten in farmers' fields.

In so many cases, the reason is simple. One idea, one piece of technology on its own seldom addresses the multiplicity of problems facing the average smallholder farmer struggling to make a living on a small patch of land in a remote corner of his or her country. Yet too often, that's exactly what people look for - an easy fix or a single solution.

In my experience, both in the field and now as the Director of the Western and Central Africa Division at IFAD, what makes a real difference is something more fundamental - it's how we look at Africa's smallholder farmers.

Do we see them as victims - poverty stricken women and men trapped in cycles of subsistence farming - or as potential entrepreneurs struggling to run small businesses in places were basic tools such as finance, technology, training and access to markets are unavailable? It's my belief that we need a paradigm shift in the way we think - one that takes us away from old ideas of African agriculture which rely on basic farming practices and on government and donor handouts and, instead, focuses on creating a vibrant rural economy built on establishing the right business environment for small farmers.

A woman I know in Ghana is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Her name is Faustina Sayki. She runs a successful cassava processing centre in a small rural town. She employs 34 women and produces about 30 tonnes of cassava flour, known as gari, a week. Her customers are in the US, UK, Nigeria and Mali. She also extracts starch from cassava and sells it to local textile and pharmaceutical factories. Many describe her as a national success story.

So how did a poor cassava farmer in a remote community build a successful cassava-processing factory? A business environment was created that gave her a chance, that's how.

Through the IFAD-supported Roots and Tubers Project Improvement and Marketing Programme she received support she needed to respond directly to market opportunities. For example, she received training that helped her strengthen her entrepreneurial skills and business savvy; and she had access to expert research and adapted technologies that helped her improve her factory's efficiency and produce a higher quality and quantity of gari.

With a sound business plan and a savings history, she was able to access private equity from a rural bank. Together, these things enabled Faustina to enter the market with a well-priced, reliable, high-quality product that is now in demand. Her story suggests what's possible once we put away old notions and start looking at small farming in Africa as a business opportunity.

Originally posted on World Challenge blog

Betting on llamas

2011-10-26T21:02:00.005+02:00

In Bolivia’s cold and harsh altiplano, llamas, alpacas and vicuñas are big business. Through the IFAD-funded Camelid Valorization Programme (better known to locals as Proyecto VALE), ranchers are increasing their incomes, protecting the environment and transforming their lives thanks to improved management practices of these loveable little creatures.

Videos
Learn more with videos from project participants (en español).

Viceministro de Desarrollo Rural de Bolivia Víctor Hugo Vásquez - Proyecto VALE
En esta entrevista el Viceministro de Desarrollo Rural de Bolivia, Víctor Hugo Vásquez, destaca los logros y desafíos del Proyecto de Apoyo a la Valorización de la Economía Campesina de Camélidos (VALE). Este proyecto está destinado a mejorar las condiciones productivas de los microempresarios pobres del sector de los camélidos en el Altiplano andino. Su principal objetivo es mejorar el acceso de estos productores —en particular, mujeres y jóvenes— a recursos productivos esenciales como el crédito, la asistencia técnica y el conocimiento, que les permitan incrementar sus rendimientos y mejorar sus ingresos. Además, el proyecto busca influir en las políticas públicas nacionales a fin de que incorporen la economía de camélidos en las estrategias de reducción de la pobreza rural.

Testimonios Directos – Ide Fatima de Ayllu Mimani (Proyecto VALE Bolivia)
Ide Fatima de Ayllu Mimani es usuaria del Proyecto de Apoyo a la Valorización de la Economía Campesina de Camélidos (VALE). En este testimonio directo, ella explica su emprendimiento de llamas.

Testimonios Directos - Gervasio Mimani (Proyecto VALE Bolivia)
Gervasio Mimani es usuario del Proyecto de Apoyo a la Valorización de la Economía Campesina de Camélidos (VALE). En este testimonio directo explica su emprendimiento de llamas y sus esperanzas para el futuro.

Testimonios Directos – Calzados Arriba (Proyecto VALE Bolivia)
En este testimonio, un usuario del Proyecto de Apoyo a la Valorización de la Economía Campesina de Camélidos (VALE), nos explica como los calzados se han convertido en mecanismo para salir de la pobreza.

Testimonios Directos - Patricia Ramírez Nuñez, 23 (Proyecto VALE Bolivia)
Patricia Ramírez Nuñez es usuaria del Proyecto de Apoyo a la Valorización de la Economía Campesina de Camélidos (VALE). En este testimonio directo, ella explica su emprendimiento de turismo y destaca los cambios en términos de equidad de género que han visto en los últimos años en Bolivia.

Testimonios Directos - Marcos Sebastian Ramírez Nuñez (Turismo Sostenible en Bolivia)
Marcos Sebastian Ramírez Nuñez es usuario del Proyecto de Apoyo a la Valorización de la Economía Campesina de Camélidos (VALE). En este testimonio directo, el universitario explica su emprendimiento de turismo.

All photos and videos ©IFAD/Greg Benchwick

Lila Downs – Reverence, Hope, Change

2011-10-24T23:10:00.004+02:00

Mexico’s favourite singer-songwriter dishes on development, gender, indigenous issues, peace and music
Lila Downs is a Grammy-award winner, Academy Award nominee, singer, songwriter and activist. Her songs tap the heart of indigenous Mexican traditions, also looking to world beats and pop to create an effervescence message of reverence, hope and change.

In this videocast, we interview Lila Downs on indigenous issues, violence, music and culture in Latin America. Her frank and incisive answers provide a unique glimpse into contemporary trends in rural development, gender equality and indigenous rights. Learn more about Lila at www.liladowns.com.

Photos and music courtesy Lila Downs.
Photo credits:
Lila Downs Turquoise - ©Fernando Aceves
Lila Lagrima de Maiz - ©Luna Maran
Lila Pensando - ©Elena Pardo
Metate - ©Ricardo Trabulsi

All other photos ©IFAD/Greg Benchwick.

KLM5 Takes Off at DA-BSWM Grounds

2011-10-19T10:45:00.004+02:00

GAME ON! Gathered in the grounds through the bujong call, KLM5 opens with a bang with representatives from DA, DAR, DTI, UN Women, and IFAD.

The 5^th Knowledge and Learning Market (KLM5) officially opened on October 19, 2011, in the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Soils and Water Management (DA-BSWM) grounds, Quezon City. KLM5 is a two-day activity

DA Undersecretary Joel Rudinas and DAR Undersecretary Rosalina Bistoyong led the ribbon-cutting ceremony with IFAD-Philippines Country Programme Officer Yolando Arban. Also present in the ceremony are DAR-Region 10 Director Felix Aguhob, DAR-Region 13 Director Faisal Banduay, UN Women M&E Officer Loren Umali, RuMEPP Director Jerry Clavesillas, DAR-FAPSO Officer Susan Perez, and DAR Director Susan Leones.

Booths showcasing products and various information materials were opened to participants. Exhibitors are composed of government agencies, NGOs, academic institutions, and IFAD-funded projects such as the RaFPEP, CHARMP2, RUPES, CURE, NMCIREMP, and RuMePP.

Participants of the event expressed excitement over the event and to the products that exhibitors offer. Aside from the booths, entries for the photo and t-shirt design contests are displayed. A photo booth is also available for the participants to take quirky shots wearing different costumes. (Written by Sharleene Kay Alayan, RaFPEP/Photo courtesy of Patrick Depolio, CHARMP2)

Knowlege Products Lined up for KLM5

2011-10-19T00:38:00.000+02:00

ALL SET. Creative juices can help a lot in decorating the sixteen (16) booths for the KLM5 to showcase knowledge products during the event.

Exhibitors flocked at the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Soils and Water Management (DA-BSWM) grounds, Quezon City, Philippines on October 18, 2011 to set up booths for the 5^th Knowledge and Learning Market (KLM5). The KLM5 will be held on October 19-20, 2011 at the BSWM Convention Hall.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) organizes the KLM yearly. For this year, KLM5 adopts the theme “Gender and Youth: Innovative Waves in Rural Development,” which aims to rally the support of different sectors on gender equality and to involve youth in rural development.

Activities during the two-day activity are forums on gender and development, career-matching sessions for youth participants, photo and t-shirt design contests, and product exhibit booths.

Government agencies, NGOs, academic institutions, and IFAD-funded projects such as the RaFPEP, CHARMP2, RUPES, CURE, Philippines Farmers Forum, RTC-CIP, NMCIREMP, and RuMePP compose the exhibitors. They shall showcase not just products for selling but also information for sharing such as scholarships, career offerings and opportunities, and backgrounder of agencies involved in the event.

The ingress activity or setting up of booths was conducted at 9:00 AM until 7:00 PM. Exhibitors expressed enthusiasm on the main event.

“We’re vying for the best booth!,” Ms. Grace Aquillo of National Irrigation Administration said.

See more photos of KLM5: Ingress at IFAD Philippines Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.276230282409427.75188.116526121713178&type=1

Snapshot - Budding Talents

2011-10-18T01:54:00.005+02:00

Nicaragua's PRODESEC project puts area youth in the drivers' seat

Learning Path Workshop: “Integrated and Sustainable Strategies for Scaling-up Micro-Irrigation Systems”

2011-10-14T16:56:00.001+02:00

Learning Path Workshop, a snapshot of the event…

The South-South learning exchange “SCAMPIS Learning Path” took place in Madagascar from 3^rd to 7^th October 2011 between 3 continents: Asia (India), Latin America (Guatemala) and Africa (Madagascar).

The main goal was sharing and learning from each country’s knowledge and experiences to find out integrated and sustainable strategies for scaling-up the micro-irrigation systems. Knowledge sharing and learning was held mainly in the field with farmers. Each country should end up with innovations (to be taken home) and suggestions from their experiences (to be shared) with highly participative and proactive approaches.

Challenges and achievements

Learning: The learning process was fully achieved for all participants. Each one went back home with at least 2 innovations or proposals to be tested in his/her country. Six topics have been discussed during the field visits: technology adoption, nutrition, natural fertilization and pesticide, promotional activities, access to rural finance, value chain (from manufacturing to the end user).

Sharing: A very high level of participation was reached as well as socialization of all participants. Sharing among the group was successful during formal or informal visits. The actors such as farmers, dealers or manufacturers we visited were able to interact with the LP group to ask questions or suggestions from the 3 countries.

Networking: The LP participants as well as local and national stakeholders expressed their willingness to continue learning and sharing from each other. Anyhow the most effective tools and ways still need to be defined.

Lessons learnt from the countries Each country took lessons and brought back home many innovations that came out from exchanges, field visits and discussions. The main ones were:

Use of recycled materials for manufacturing water pumps (experience from Madagascar)

Use of audio, video, media as part of scaling-up strategies

Nutrition/cooking lessons as an integrated approach toward the MIS (experience from Guatemala)

Use of public places such as schools and hospitals as demonstration sites as per promotional strategy (experience from Guatemala)

Promotion of adaptable kits according to needs and demands of farmers (size and accessories) (suggestion from India)

3rd October 2011

Activities

1) 1)Participants presentations and identifications of the objectives of the LP workshop

2) 2)Agenda of the workshop and methodology for learning

3) 3)Field visit : Ambohimanga –Mr Mamy, progressive farmer

From the LP Diary “First day of LP is quite exciting, eye opened for me (and hopefully for all) on the ‘SCAMPIS world” Debasis (India)

4th October 2011

Activities (field visits)

1) 1) Itaosy: exchange with dealer, technical promoter and farmers : theater performances and presentation of India on 2)Promotions Strategies implemented by IDEI for Scampis project

2) 3)Visita at Gasc’art studio in Bevalala – pump manufactur

4)Visit at the « La Ferme d’Ivato : farmers association with bio-production using MIS

From the LP Diary « A pesar del cansancio y el cambio de hora, conoces a tantas personces involocrudas en el desarollo y la alimentacion de las personas es satisfactorio. Tenemos idiomas y costumbres diferentes peso estamos hoa endo lo mismo » Rolando (Guatemala)

5th October 2011

Activities

1) Guatemala presentation (Prorural & Scampis Guatemala project)

2) Imeritsiatosika (Field Visit): progressive dealer who implements micro-rural finance

3) Centre Tsinjoaina (Field Visit): meeting with a small association of women who use rotative fund for improve livelihood condition (health, food security, agriculture with micro-irrigation, etc); presentation on the role of the Self Help Groups in India and interactions with OTELP programme

4) Ambohijafy field visit and meeting with, dealer and farmer, presentation on technologies adaptation and strategy of the dealer; presentation of the Guatemalean strategies in the schools: advantages and difficulties in promoting the technologies in the school and implementing school gardens

5) Patrakala & Innovagri presentations « Production and empowerment strategy of the production and distribution chain » - MICRO-IRRIGATION KIT MANUFACTURERS

From the LP Diary “Today the field visit with the local NGOs and other stakeholders was more interacting on the Scampis programme. We came to know their role in the Scampis programme Madagascar” NCP (India)

6th October 2011

Activities

1) Practical exercise: production of MIS kits with Patrakala and Innovagri

2) Village de la Joie (Field Visit)Introduction of the village ;

3) Exchange and practice on nutrition, Guatemala facilitation : preparation of carrot dessert and carrots and organge juice

4) Exchange and practice on natural fertilization : Guatemala facilitation (vermi-compost) and Director of Protection des Végétaux Madagascar (natural pesticide)

From the LP diary « C’est une journée où on a eu le plus d’échanges sur la valorisation des produits issus du SMI (proposition de recettes) avec Guatemala, et les engrais liquides ainsi que les luttes bio contre les maladies et insectes », Christin (Madagascar)

7th October 2011

Activities

Final workshop open to the public :

1) Focuses on SCAMPIS India, Guatemala and Madagascar : presentations on « innovations I will suggest, difficulties perceived by the communities and suggestions »

2) Role of communication (audio, viedeo and other media)

3) « I.S. » strategies for scaling-up Micro-irrigation Systems ? - Integrated and Sustainable strategies for scaling-up MIS

4) Lunch discussion on the best tools to use to continua the interactions

Afternoon : LP group

Final evaluation and discussion

From the LP diary « En la discusiòn de hoy espero poder haber algunos aportes para mejoros la ejcucion del proyecto SCAMPIS, el cual esta llevando muchas benuficios a personas pobres en los 3 Paises y no olvidar que el riego es un medio y no un fin » Rolando (Guatemala)

Thank you to all the group

Cecilia & Anja

Follow us on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/learningpath/) or write to c.ruberto@ifad.org
More photos: Learning Path Workshop Photos

FARM 98.0 FM: The vocal gateway to agricultural information

2011-10-14T07:37:00.000+02:00

Agriculture is the main source of livelihood of 80% of the 4.5 million people inhabiting the remote communities and villages of Imo State, a rural state in south-eastern Nigeria. However, agricultural extension services which should support farming have collapsed, due to the unavailability of input materials needed to support this service. The outcome is that smallholder farmers lack access to reliable market information and advanced farming techniques, and use outdated techniques that turn out small volumes of products.

Today thanks to the efforts of Nnaemeka C. Ikegwuonu and FARM 98.0 Radio, the farmers have a precious resource. FARM 98.0 FM designs and broadcasts daily agricultural, environmental management and market information in the local Igbo language to 250,000 small farmer listeners living in 3 remote and isolated local government areas of Imo State.

FARM 98.0 broadcasts 10 hours a day, sharing contemporary agricultural and environmental management techniques, daily market information, advertises farm products and imparts critical business skills. Smallholder farmers use the daily broadcast programme to decide what to produce, when to produce, how to produce and for whom to produce in order to boost their yields and income.

In this interview Ikegwuonu shares how and why he decided to set up this valuable service for smallholder farmers and tells us about his passion for agriculture.

Entrepreneurs beyond borders #gyin

2011-10-14T07:22:00.003+02:00

On Wednesday 12 October, some of the participants of the Youth Conference - Agents of Change visited the pineapple agro-processing facilities of Dieu Donne Alladjodjo, located about 60 kilometres north of Cotonou. We had a rather eventful trip, as half-way to our destination, our convey had an accident.

Thank God, no one was seriously injured. We duly followed all UN security procedures, informed both IFAD and UN security officers. With their respective blessings - and as they say in this part of the world - all protocols observed - we continued our trip to the world of pineapple processing!

Benin goes proud of its pineapples, as they are deemed one of the best in the world. In 1998, the annual production was approximately 100 million tonnes. However, the planters were unable to exploit this gold mine because they did not have access to regional and international markets, nor in a position to improve the quality of their products.
This is why a decade or so ago, the pineapple planters got together to explore how they could exploit this great asset and increase their income, improve their livelihoods and provide a better life for their families and communities. As a result, they embarked on a successful processing journey.

Alladjodjo entered into processing business when was 19 years old. Today he runs a successful business which gives employment to 307 people of which 80% are women and has a total annual income of CFA200 million. The plant is equipped with the “en norme” equipment meeting international standards, and has the capacity to process up to 80 tonnes of pineapple a day.

“We buy traditional and organic pineapples from individual farmers, farmer associations and cooperatives operating in Mono, Zou, Ouémé and Atlantique region”, explainedAlladjodjo. “When we embarked on this journey we realized that while the pineapple industry was a gold mine, however, we were faced with the challenge of having access to good inputs, thus being able to produce good quality final product.”

That is how they engaged with the IFAD-funded Rural Economic Growth Support Project which helped them get access to good inputs such as fertilizer and built their capacity to develop rural agro-based micro and small enterprises.

Today, Alladjodjo sells canned pineapple juice wholesale at local, national and regional level. "I sell 3000 boxes of pineapple juice for a total of CFA15,000,000", explains Alladjodjo,

This young man’s story inspired and flared the entrepreneur spirit of the young Africans, Latin Americans, Egyptian, Syrian and Yemeni participants in the group who saw Alladjodjo experience as great import-export opportunity. It was amazing to see how business cards were exchanged and hear the questions and clarifications about import-export legal framework.

Ebtesam saw a new business opportunity for her grocery store and Mohamed, our fashion designer, seriously started considering entering into pineapple import-export business.

What we witnessed on this hot and humid day in Allada was visionary entrepreneurs connecting with and learning from each other. Definitely, this field trip is the beginning of many future global business opportunities.

Let’s hope next time you are in Yemen or Syria you'll be able to drink Alladjodjo’s pineapple juice and that let's hope that Alladjodjo's achievements inspire many more young entrepreneurs and help improve many more lives.

Acceso a Mercados - Lecciones, videos e innovaciones

2011-10-13T21:40:00.008+02:00

Taller de Acceso a Mercados: Mesoamérica y Panamá, Un Mundo de Oportunidades
En el Taller de Acceso a Mercados: Mesoamérica y Panamá, Un Mundo de Oportunidades - el 21, 22 y 23 de Septiembre de 2011 en el Hotel La Ensenada, Tela, Honduras - se tuvo la participación de participantes de diferentes Instituciones y países: 4 participantes de México, 25 de Guatemala, 9 de El Salvador, 21 de Honduras, 8 de Nicaragua, 3 de Panamá, 4 de Roma, 6 de Argentina y 6 de otros países.

Lecciones e innovaciones

Dialogar y conocer los actuales retos y perspectivas del acceso a mercados con pequeños productores en territorios en pobreza en el contexto de América Latina.
Reflexionar sobre la necesidad de establecer alianzas público–privadas para poder encaminar procesos sostenibles de vinculación y acceso a mercados de las organizaciones de productores rurales apoyados por los programas FIDA.
Mejorar las habilidades técnicas respecto a los nuevos tópicos del desarrollo rural, comercial: innovación para el desarrollo de la empresarialidad rural; alianzas para el desarrollo en territorios rurales; calidad e inocuidad y certificaciones; inteligencia de mercados e innovación; capital de trabajo para la comercialización; y seguridad alimentaria y nutrición en el marco del desarrollo empresarial rural y equidad de género.

Videos
Acceso a mercados en Guatemala

Sin mercados, no hay dinero. Y sin dinero, no hay oportunidades. Organizaciones como el Fondo Internacional de Desarrollo Agrícola (FIDA) crean oportunidades para que los pequeños productores tengan acceso a mercados grandes, un importante paso en la lucha contra la pobreza rural. Con la intención de replicar el éxito de sus proyectos en Guatemala – en los que pequeños campesinos ya venden sus productos en mercados grandes con clientes como Wal-Mart, con incrementos en sus ingresos hasta de 50 por ciento en algunos casos –, el FIDA presentó un “Taller de Acceso a Mercados" en Tela, Honduras. En esta entrevista, Juan Santos, Presidente de la asociación AGRISEM, comparte su experiencia de acceso a mercados en Guatemala.

Oportunidades Ecológicas en México

En el noroeste semiárido de México hay una elevada incidencia de la pobreza rural provocada y agravada por las condiciones ambientales y la base limitada de recursos naturales. La pobreza rural en esta zona se debe a la falta de acceso a la tierra, la extrema fragmentación de las explotaciones, el deterioro de los recursos naturales y el limitado acceso a recursos productivos. El Proyecto de Desarrollo Sustentable para las Comunidades Rurales e Indígenas del Noroeste Semiárido trabajará con las comunidades rurales e indígenas más pobres y marginadas de los cuatro estados seleccionados para: 1. mejorar la conservación de los recursos naturales 2. garantizar un mayor control de las comunidades sobre sus bienes, incluida la tierra, la agrobiodiversidad y el entorno natural 3. aumentar la capacidad productiva de la tierra mediante el uso de tecnologías mejoradas de producción y conservación 4. mejorar los niveles de renta y de empleo mediante la promoción de microempresas rurales y de turismo basado en la naturaleza y el cobro por los servicios ambientales prestados 5. aumentar la participación de las comunidades en los procesos de desarrollo territorial, con especial atención a la participación de las mujeres y de los más jóvenes. En esta entrevista el Director de PRODERNOS, Carlos Edgar González Godoy, nos destaca los logros y desafíos del proyecto.

Posibilidades en Panamá

Ramón Isos Giono. Director Ejecutivo del Proyecto PARTICIPA en Panamá destaca los logros y desafíos del proyecto y como mejorar el acceso a mercados para los pequeños productores.

Acceso a Mercados - Lecciones Aprendidas

2011-10-13T20:22:00.007+02:00

Comparte los slideshows del Taller de Acceso a Mercados: Mesoamérica y Panamá - Un Mundo de Oportunidades

Ivan Buitron - encadenamientos empresariales

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

Tulio Garcia - oportunidades de mercado

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

Daniel Laguna - aspectos planificación

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

Carlos Cardenas - seguridad alimentaria

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

Maria Pacheco - desarrollo empresarial mujeres

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

Dra. Marie Cordonier - Carbon Markets

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

Jesus Quintana - cambio climatico

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

José Roman - cambio climatico

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

Ruben Morales - oportunidades dr cafta

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

Dra. Ana Victoria Roman - incidencia en indicadores de nutricion

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

___

High-level Brazilian delegation visits IFAD to discuss new rural poverty reduction project for the state of Sergipe

2011-10-13T19:06:00.003+02:00

Governor Marcelo Déda Chagas meets with IFAD Vice-President to push project forward
A high-level Brazilian delegation met with International Fund For Agricultural Development (IFAD) Vice-President Yukiko Omura, IFAD’s Director of Latin America and the Caribbean Division Josefina Stubbs and other senior IFAD staff October 12 to hammer out details of the new US$37.8 million Small Producers Rural Business Project, better known in Brazil as Project Dom Tavora.

The Brazilian delegation included Sergipe Governor Marcelo Déda Chagas, Secretary of Agriculture and Agrarian Development José Macedo Sobral and the President and Director of the Agricultural Development Agency Jefferson Feitozza de Carvalho.

“This project looks to fight rural poverty in a sustainable way by helping businesses and small-scale producers to improve their productivity and technical capabilities, and access new markets and financial services,” said Iván Cossio, IFAD Country Program Manager for Brazil. “At the same time, we are looking to build the technical capacity within the vary agencies that will be implementing the project, thus ensuring the project’s long-term viability.”

During the visit, the governor gave a presentation to IFAD staff on the Brazil Without Extreme Poverty Program (Brasil Sem Miseria), underlining how the national program works in the state of Sergipe and how it could work in conjunction with new IFAD-funded projects in the region.

“Finding ways to effectively coordinate IFAD-funded programs with these massive government programs will be key to ensuring strong results on the ground and long-term sustainability for these initiatives,” Cossio said.

The Dom Tavora Project is slated to benefit some 32,000 poor rural families in 15 municipalities in the State of Sergipe. Approximately 12,000 families will receive direct support from the project while another 20,000 will benefit from the improved technical assistance offered by the implementing agency.

The IFAD Executive Board is expected to review the project this December. The project benefits from a US$16 million IFAD loan to the State of Sergipe, with the Government of Sergipe providing another US$12.6 million. Project beneficiaries will provide another US$9.2 million in financing.

“The Sergipe Project is especially innovative as its principal strategy is based in catalysing and stimulating growth for businesses run by small-scale producers. Given the right support, these small-scale producers are capable of creating efficient, sustainable and profitable businesses,” Cossio said. “And as we’ve seen throughout the world, treating agriculture as a business is one of the most effective means to reduce rural poverty.”
Photos: ©IFAD/Publifoto

Making policy dialogue work for the rural poor - The experience of Latin America and the Caribbean

2011-10-11T18:54:00.003+02:00

Last week IFAD hosted the seminar “Making policy dialogue work for the rural poor - The experience of Latin America and the Caribbean”. Among the panellists were Mr Heladio Ramirez, Senator, Mexico and Ms Claudia Serrano, Executive Director, RIMISP.

Our social reporter Marieclaire Colaiacomo had the chance to ask them some questions about the definition of policy dialogue, and how to approach it. You can watch the interviews in Spanish here:

Ça c’est l’Afrique: The backstory #gyin

2011-10-11T08:06:00.002+02:00

Young entrepreneurs from around the world have gathered in Cotonou, Benin to share knowledge and learn from each other’s experiences for a four-day event titled “Youth Entrepreneurs – Agents of Change.

Yesterday Canal 3, a private TV in Benin approached us and asked to interview Mohamed Beavougi, the director of West and Central Africa. We agreed to meet at the TV station at 7pm and to go on air live at 7:30pm.

We got there on time, met the journalist, got settled in the studio, did a test run and were all set to go. And three minutes before going on air, something does not work and a piece of equipment breaks!

The technician starts running around, goes out, comes back with some cables. It is now 7:29.... and the technician is still running around.What was most incredible is that no one panicked. It is now 7:32 and the journalist is casually chit chatting with Mohamed and says: “We have a technical problem, I am afraid we cannot go on air until we resolve the problem.”

I leave the studio and go to the adjacent room, where I find the technician literary inside the equipment. The room is dark, and I see the technicians using their cellphones as flash lights. I stood there in awe, looking at how these gentlemen solved the problem and fixed the broken equipment.

Twenty-three minutes later, we managed to go on air live. When the technician came back in the studio, he looked at us and said: “Ça c’est l’Afrique”.

I challenge all the high-tech and well-equipped TV studios around the world to solve the technical problems the way their African colleagues did!

And here is Mohamed’s interview.

P.S. Wonder what CNN's Michael Holmes has to say about this BackStory :)

Using astronomy and animals, voices to predict rainfall: A Maasai practice #gyin #sfrome

2011-10-10T20:43:00.000+02:00

There is growing recognition that indigenous peoples are affected by the economic, social and environmental impact of climate change and that their traditional knowledge may be critical for effective adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Mosses Ndiyaine from Tanzania, who was both at last month's Share Fair and now in Cotonou for the Young People Conference- Agents of Change, tells us how the Maasai use indigenous knowledge and astronomy to predict rainfall and adapt to climate change.

#sfrome: Knowledge management planning

2011-10-10T17:14:00.000+02:00

Written by Edgar Tan

Knowledge management projects typically require significant awareness raising, education and change management efforts to get buy-in and participation from operational level managers. Such managers are often impatient with theoretical KM frameworks and concepts or high level strategies, and they can easily dismiss KM as too fuzzy and impractical to be useful. Knowledge managers frequently find themselves preoccupied with fighting defensive actions around understanding and buy-in, instead of directly planning, orchestrating and executing knowledge management strategies and programmes.

In the KM Planning workshop Edgar Tan and Kim Martins took the participants through a facilitated and staged participatory planning process using a set of performance support tools to:

* diagnose specific pain points in the operations that can be supported through KM

* identify cultural factors that support or inhibit more effective knowledge sharing and use

* focus managers on the areas they believe are of highest priority to them

* help managers identify appropriate KM approaches, methods and tools to support their priority areas

The value of a participatory planning approach is that operational managers are themselves working with the KM team to identify the main components of a KM intervention, rather than having a KM team impose a solution from outside. This removes much of the burden of getting buy-in (because prioritisation and selection of approaches are done by the managers themselves), and the awareness and education process is focused on explaining the approaches and methods that managers themselves select as possible candidates.

If you wish to see how the process works, read this blog post and watch the embedded video:

http://www.greenchameleon.com/gc/blog_detail/conducting_a_km_planning_exercise/

Meet Ebtesam Abdullah Saad - a young Yemeni lady and an agent of change #gyin

2011-10-10T16:49:00.000+02:00

Ebtesam Abdullah Saad, is 22 years old. She lives in Tihamah, 100 kilometres away from San’a in Yemen.

She has travelled to Cotonou in Benin to take part at the Youth conference - Agents of change to share her experience and to learn what other young people in different countries are doing and how they are overcoming their challenges and working to reach their aspirations.

She is an amazing young woman. Saad not only is a farmer, but also runs a successful grocery shop, is the chairperson of the savings groups, runs literacy and family planning classes for her community.

“I go proud of my various activities. I have a grocery store which I run together with my mother and my other siblings. I have two hectares farm land where I grow potatoes, tomatoes, sorghum and different types of vegetables”, explains Saad.

Saad’s farm land produces 15 tonnes of potatoes and 1.5 tonnes of tomatoes annually and she can count on an annual income of 600,000 Rials.Saad - a savvy farmer - knows that for her farm to have a good yield and be able to have a secure income, she needs to invest in seeds and fertilizers. “And this is precisely why I spend 60% of my income on inputs and to buy fuel for the generator which we use for irrigation”, says Saad.

Another feather in Saad’s hat is the savings group she chairs. “You know, it is impossible for women to have access to credit, so what we did, is to get organized and we set up our own savings group”, says a proud Saad.

“The group started in 2008 and today has 31 members - all women. So far we’ve given out 64 loans for a total of 845,000 Rials”.

This women’s savings group gives out loans ranging from 15,000 to 180,000 Rials and requires no guarantee or collateral. And guess what, to date, everyone has completely repaid their loans. Yet another example that women are credit worthy! One would hope that credit and financial institutions will finally open their doors to credit worthy women!

“I am looking forward to sharing my experience, challenges and aspirations with the other young people at this event these stories and show them that women can be self-sufficient and independent, that women are credit worthy, that women are as good, if not better entrepreneurs and business people”, remarks Saad.

Saad is learning English and aspires to have the local women’s savings group recognized at national level. She is a role model within her community and seeks to build the capacity of as many women as possible and empower them to take their lives in their hands.

“I hope that by the time I have my second child, at least 70% of the women in my community have an income generating activity and can stand on their feet”, says the four-month pregnant Saad.

And we can only keep our fingers crossed and wish Saad and the courageous ladies of her community the best of luck!

Climate smart agriculture, additionality and business as usual

2011-10-10T14:01:00.008+02:00

by Dr. Bruce Campbell, Director, CGIAR Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)

In one workshop session at the Bonn SBSTA one participant said “We are doing nothing new”. In the Second Global AgriKnowledge Share Fair, held late last month at IFAD headquarters in Rome, participants in one session felt that “perhaps 80% of climate smart agriculture (CSA) is made up of what we already know how to do and are trying to do”. I realise this refers to the proven technologies and practices that can be called upon in CSA, but we also have to consider “additionality”. “Additionality” is a keyword in climate change negotiations. Additionality can be defined as the extent to which a new input adds to the existing inputs (instead of replacing any of them) and results in a greater aggregate. The word is applied to climate finance – the call for developed countries to provide, “new and additional” climate change financing to developing countries. And it is also a key word applied to mitigation interventions – the interventions must reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to business as usual (or compared to the agreed baseline). Additionality is less frequently applied to adaptation, but even here it has been raised; and it is only time before metrics will be needed to show how climate finance has improved adaptive capacity (e.g., see the chapter on MRV in the Meridian Institute Report on Agriculture and Climate Change) http://www.climate-agriculture.org/~/media/Files/Projects/CCAg%20microsite/Agriculture%20and%20Climate%20Change%20Scoping%20Report%2012%20July%202011.pdf).

So why is “climate-smart agriculture” additional to business as usual? CSA includes the explicit recognition that there are three (or more) outcomes that are sought, two of which are climate-related. There are the business as usual outcomes associated with agricultural development – e.g. production increases, improved agricultural markets, enhanced food security, empowered farmer organisations etc. Then there are the climate change outcomes – enhanced adaptation to climate change, and enhanced contribution of agriculture to climate change mitigation.

And, invariably, when we seek to enhance more than one outcome there will be trade-offs that have to be dealt with. To illustrate some of these – rising temperatures in the Indo-Gangetic plains mean that wheat may need to be planted earlier, but the easy way to do that is to burn the rice residues of the previous crop, thus increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Movement of potato farmers up the Andes to escape the pests and diseases from a warming world will result in the destruction of carbon-rich grasslands. Crop insurance may help deal with crop failures due to extreme events in the short term, but may in the long term be maladaptive – the real solution being more transformative adaptation (changing crop species, out-migration etc). So, CSA is different from business as usual in that the trade-offs amongst production increases, adaptation and mitigation are explicitly recognised and dealt with, both for short and long time scales.

CSA is also not business as usual in terms of the partnerships needed to foster outcomes. The climate science community and meteorological departments need to be more closely involved with the agricultural community – for providing meaningful seasonal, near-term and decadal forecasts of climate which are essential if adaptation to increased variability and progressive climate change is to be successful. Given the predicted increase in frequency and severity of extremes, much more attention has to be given to climate risk management. This also needs better partnerships with the crisis response community and insurance sector. We also have to bring in a completely different group of scientists – those dealing with measuring greenhouse gas emissions.

There are many technologies and practices that are known that can be brought to bear on CSA. But CSA is not business as usual, as there are also many technologies and practices that are not climate-smart! Fertiliser subsidies may enhance food production outcomes but will often result in increased greenhouse gas emissions. Building large irrigation schemes in regions where rivers are likely to dry will do nothing for adaptation over the longer term. Promoting crops and livestock that are increasingly difficult to grow in specific agro-ecological zones is not climate-smart.

Markets in a climate-smart world are likely to be different. Many western diets are poor for human health and the environment. There is increasing recognition that eating habits will need to change. Fat taxes are being introduced. There are campaigns about “carbon footprints”. This trend is likely to intensify. In a climate-smart world, developing countries will need to improve the efficiency of production methods for export products if they are to compete; or may need to shift to alternative products that have less of an environmental impact.

Climate-smart agriculture is likely to be very different in different places. In some regions of the world we have to expect greenhouse gas emissions to increase, given the significant yield gaps that exist. But even here it is not business as usual, as the emissions per unit food produced will likely be lower than under business as usual. In other regions of the world, especially in developed countries, CSA will involve de-intensifying agriculture to reduce the environmental footprint. In some parts of the world, we can expect incremental adaptation as varieties change and as cropping systems are altered. In other parts we can expect transformative adaptation as industries move and transform; as new crops are brought in; as major shifts occur between livestock and crops.

CSA will bring in new policies. This is already the case in some countries. For example, we see “carbon farming initiatives”. NAMAs and NAPAs are widespread and are increasingly giving more attention to agriculture. REDD+ plans are recognising agriculture as a driver of deforestation and we can expect greater attention to the details of how to solve this – involving policies and actions in the forestry and agriculture sectors.

CSA is also about visioning an uncertain future world, and about acting on those visions. While we may know many of the solutions to today's problem’s, we now have to plan for the next decade – with rising temperatures and more extreme events. Seasonal forecasting and long term climate projections are, unfortunately, riddled with uncertainty (though we can expect this situation to improve with further research). Tools are now being put in place that will help development practitioners and service providers to farmers envision a future world. With a click on a site on a map you should be able to get a series of predictions about future climates. With a click on a site you should be able to see places which can be visited to get a glimpse of the likely future climate for your site. Farmer-to-farmer visits can be organised to such analogue places to exchange views on how farming may have to shift.

CSA is also about a new research agenda. There are many new research issues that need urgent attention. We need downscaled climate projections that work for those involved in agriculture. We need much better seasonal forecasting for climate risk management. We need enhanced index-based insurance products. Farmers, extension workers and development planners need the decision support tools to help navigate the trade-offs amongst production goals, adaptation goals and mitigation goals. We need basic information on the costs of different options (to take a case in point, the costs of soil carbon sequestration in Australia range from $10-50/ton CO2. Such lack of precision is having major implications for policy development). And CSA means a new wave of attention to breeding – breeders need to think about what is needed in 10-20 years time, with crop-specific strategies. The implications of climate change on pests and diseases is a major area for research.

CSA is not business as usual. It has many dimensions of additionality. But there are plenty of proven technologies and practices that can be promoted today for a climate-smart world.

#sfrome: Nexus between rural employment and food security (65)

2011-10-10T10:54:00.004+02:00

Written by Cristina Sette (CGIAR)

FAO is working on an integrated country approach for rural employment and decent work in Malawi and Tanzania aiming to support national capacities in mainstreaming rural employment and decent work; child labour prevention; and youth employment creation. The three-year programme is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and supports the Millennium Development Goal 1 on ‘Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger’, under the new target (1B) to achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people.

Peter Wobst, from FAO, presented the main aspects of the approach, its background, the rationale and its activities, such as child labour prevention in agriculture and junior farmer field and life schools (JFFLS). Peter shared with us the lessons he and his team have learned since the programme started:

Involvement of stakeholders such as national and local government, UN agencies, those active in the area (NGOs), and local communities is crucial for understanding all the issues involved in rural employment.
Using an integrated approach that better reflect issues on child labour and linking it with other areas of food security, collecting ideas beyond employment.
Paying attention to context and population groups to have tailored approaches (the reality of employment in fishing communities is different from crop farmers)
Influencing the formulation of policy and strategies at national and UN level.
Working through capacity development but need next steps

Peter’s team faces several challenges and wanted to discuss with participants of the session three main challenges: institutionalization of such an approach, ways for sustainability and linkages with existing investments in agriculture.

One participant suggested to avoid the word institutionalization as it can be associated with bureaucracy. And to look at this intervention as a complex systems with multiple dimensions. On the sustainability, working with policy makers on the values of the project, on creation of employment and reducing poverty, can be a way to move towards sustainability, where National governments take the responsibility for carrying on the programme in a near future. Just having policies is not enough, but helping governments to see the importance of such policies and the benefits of applying such policies can bring is the way forward.

Child labour is a sensitive issue but when discussing with national partners, the team linked it with poverty reduction and employment generation.

More information can be found at http://www.fao-ilo.org/

Giving a voice to young professionals through agricultural on-line events (30)

2011-10-10T10:45:00.002+02:00

Written by Marina Cherbonnier (YPARD)

I was rather delighted to head to my session with, fresh in mind, one of the last advices from the « Communities of Practice clinic» that I was just leaving:

« First of all, launch informal discussions with people you envisage as beneficiaries of your community of practice and simply ask them what they want and need! »

I was going towards the good direction!

Presenting YPARD’s agricultural online events for giving a voice to our Young Professionals’ community… that’s what it was about…

but it was even more about launching an interactive discussion, with the people attending the session, on how to get more youth involved in (YPARD) online events*.

Let me jump into the conclusions:

Strengthen your social media strategy, your partnerships and your promotion

This was the conclusion of a previous discussion on the same topic in a previous share fair. How concretely apply this?

Express and promote what Young Professionals (can) gain from participating to YPARD online events**. Give concrete examples of the advantages that some previous participants got from it. Brand it as « success stories ».
Address challenges such as shyness to contribute, lack of confidence of young professionals (« My opinion is not relevant »), cultural tradition of the youth to keep silent as a respect to older people. How to Answer this? Show to the youth that you (community manager or whatever is your name), you are here for them as a supporter, an advisor and ready to help and assist them technically such as on the content itself.
Link YPARD representatives in the different regions and countries to the rest of the community more, so that the WHOLE community feels engaged in the movement. YPARD members are not simple followers but have each a role to play! Do you hear the key word “ownership” resonating loudly here? ( -note : YPARD is a worldwilde and decentralized movement -)
Use local and national newspapers, media and organisations to promote the online events as much as it can be!

Solicit content / subjects of interest

Encourage young professionals or supporters of youth’s cause to talk about local projects or local strategic decisions. Why ? I guess I don’t need to recall how much this is valuable as “food for thoughts”. Let me rather highlight that:
People like to learn about on-the-ground experience by individuals; people like to be told stories in which they can possibly identify themselves or recognize some elements from their own experience.
We only require young professionals to talk about their own experience in the simplest way they can… There shouldn’t be any fear of being « wrong » in telling their story. What do they know more than their daily life and reality?
Make sure that the individuals’ testimonies are combined to a person’s profile and a picture. It makes the thing much more personal and friendly!
Get conversations' key leaders for moderating the e-discussions. It enables to orient discussions into deeper considerations. These leaders could possibly be some specialists and recognized people. This gives more credibility to the discussions.

Provide attractive types of events

Blogs and discussions are most appreciated if there is a way for the contributor to see the number of views, to have his/her post “liked” and shared, to receive comments.

Pictures and videos attract more people, particularly the ones who are not sensitized to agriculture. It is indeed livelier, more fun and it humanizes concepts, projects, policies and evaluations.
The idea of developing contests has been emphasized as very appealing for young professionals. Being in competition and winning a price gets the things exciting. Why not get the opportunity to attend a conference or a forum and represent the movement created online on specific topics?
Video contests while they could seem quite time consuming for participants could be proposed in a way that only short interviews, snapshots of Young Professionals, series of few pictures are required.
E-conferences are much appreciated. Being able to follow a session through streaming while carrying on with some task in the office is seen as very convenient. Being able to contribute through social media on live is also very engaging.

Should we create a “free zone” on YPARD Website for Young Professionals to express themselves simply the way they want it, with text, pictures, videos, SONGS, drawings etc etc?… I am starting imagining a fresco similar to Nancy White’s drawings… A big one, where the whole community would have putted its pieces… There would be some sound as background and animated shots embedded… It looks good from here… Let’s push the thoughts and actions further…

It was a small session but with high and thoughtful participation! I thank once again the participants! Others, your comments are most welcome!

* Online events can be series of blogs, e-discussions, e-consultations, e-conferences, pictures galleries/exhibitions, video contests… songs contests, drawing exhibition etc etc…

** Benefits from contributing to YPARD online events: Learn from others and get inspired from their experience, create a strong network with your peers, “experienced professionals” and partners organisations, gain visibility, gain credibility and get a voice as an individual and as a community of youth; have your say on strategic and political level; get YPARD be the echo of your issues in strategic debates and furthermore get strategic decisions be in phase with what impact you!

Contact: Marina Cherbonnier, YPARD (Young Professionals’ Platform for Agricultural Research for Development) Marina.cherbonnier@ypard.net

Let’s keep the Share Fair - #sfrome - spirit alive

2011-10-09T18:17:00.000+02:00

Last night I had dinner with the organizers of the Global Youth Innovation Network and while eating, I could see their minds racing like an F1 car, thinking of all the things that needed to do, all those details that they needed to take care of. It reminded me of our state of mind two weeks ago as we were finalizing the preparations of the Second Global AgriKnowledge Share Fair.

Organizing the Share Fair was a nine-month affair and our friend and UNDP colleague, Johannes Schunter, in his blogpost “What does it take to make the Share Fair happen? Don’t ask ‘what’, ask ‘who’! ", eloquently summarized the essence of what and who it takes to organize a share fair.

I can tell you that this nine-month affair meant many long days, many working weekends, many vacation days dedicated to organizing the share fair, many new bonds and friendships, many moments of joy, happiness and laughter and infinite satisfaction.

From the outset we committed to make the Share Fair an “out-of-the-box”, memorable and outward looking event. From the feedback we’ve received and are receiving, it looks like we managed to fulfill this commitment.

So who is this royal WE? The WE are the 690 participants, the 160 presenters, the army of social reporters, the many facilitators, the “share fair angels” - the volunteers, all those who worked behind the scenes and the Share Fair steering committee.

WE should go proud of orchestrating such a memorable event. And for our IFAD colleagues, as someone said, this was IFAD at is best. We should all go proud of this achievement - indeed a feather in IFAD’s hat.

I would add that this was knowledge sharing and breaking silos at its best as the share fair gave everyone an opportunity to learn from the knowledge and innovations of colleagues from the private sector, public sector agencies, NGOs, academics, think tanks, bilateral, multilateral and UN agencies.

For four days, the participants and the presenters created a special buzz and energy. For four days we saw lots of happy and smiling people. For four days we saw many people connecting, sharing and learning. For four days we saw IFAD meeting rooms packed with people.

For four days we saw people conducting meetings in alternative, creative and innovative ways. For four days we explored new ways of documenting and recording meetings - be it through graphic recording, via Twitter, blogs, videos, Facebook and pictures.

For four days we experienced first hand the power and potential of social media. For four days the Twitter wall took centre stage and kept everyone in the building abreast of what was going on in the numerous parallel session. For four days we did not see many suits and ties. For four days we benefitted from the wisdom and insights of four avant-garde thought leaders. In essence for four days we witnessed a unique metamorphosis. And WE LOVED it.

Thanks to the Share Fair’s remarkable social media presence the event went beyond the walls of IFAD and reached approximately 2.4 million people. 4500 people watched the various webcast and participated in the conversation and debate through social media channels. And we got the best questions came via Twitter and Facebook.

As one of the quotes on the Share Fair panels said: “Knowledge is like a garden; if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.” The challenge now is to implement the many stimulating ideas we picked during the Share Fair and keep the spirit and vibrant buzz of the Share Fair alive. Recently I came across a quote from B. Fuller which really resonated with the Share Fair spirit and it goes: "You can't change anything by fighting or resisting it. You change something by making it obsolete through superior methods".

I hope WE can commit to put to practice the Share Fair “superior methods”.

Let’s commit to conduct our meetings differently, let’s commit to take advantage of the power and potential of social media.

Dare I say, let’s commit to take meeting minutes via Twitter and Storify them. Dare I say let’s commit to invite alternative keynote speakers such as Rob Burnet, Mark Davies, Etienne Wenger, Michele Payn-Knoper to IFAD-sponsored events. Dare I say let’s commit to change behaviours.

Let’s keep the Share Fair flame alive. Let's dare to do things differently! Here comes the Share Fair revolution..... Let's overthrow status quo!!!

#gyin: Global Youth Innovation Network a platform for young women entrepreneurs to shine and advance their business

2011-10-08T18:29:00.000+02:00

From 10-13 October 2011, IFAD together with Phelps Stokes Fund and in collaboration with the Government of Benin, Songhai Centre, Palmares Fundação cultural, Fundación Activos Culturales Afro (ACUA) and the GIVE 1 Project is holding a four-day event for young entrepreneurs - agents of change.

This morning, I met Nabiha Farrag - one of the many participants of this event. Farrang is a young Egyptian entrepreneur who runs a handicraft workshop in Asyut, south of Cairo.

"I am coming to this event to share what I am doing with a wider audience. I see this as a business opportunity to show case my products and to advance my activity", says Farrag.

Farrag started her handicraft business inspired by her father's work. After working with him for 15 years, four years ago she spread her wings and set up her own workshop. Her biggest challenge was and continues to be access to credit.

"To set up my workshop, I got an initial loan of EGP3000 and after I showed that I was credit-worthy I managed to get an extra EGP5000."

Farrang's monthly income is just enough to make ends meet. To really take the workshop but to really take the workshop to scale, she needs approximately EGP20,000 to buy additional equipment and quality raw material.

Farrag hopes that this event will give her a platform to share her experience, to make new contacts, to show case her products, to manage to mobilize resources so that she can further advance her business.

"I will have a stand during the event and sincerely hope that when people see the workshop's products, the orders will start pouring in. One of my aspirations and goals from this event is to be able to sell my products and make enough money to buy the additional equipment I need for the workshop", explains Farrang.

Farrang although married is practically a single mother. "I am coming to this event with lots of hope. It was a great sacrifice to leave behind my four year old son. I sincerely hope that I get a lot from this event", tell me Farrang.

And we all hope that on Friday when she leaves, she leaves rich in heart, in soul, in knowledge and as they say in French rich in "sous". We should not forget that investing in women and young girls is the pathway to stability and growth. This is why it is important to empower women, because by doing so, we make sure that the entire community thrives.

#sfrome: Afghanistan's poor farmers struggle to access markets (188)

2011-10-06T18:45:00.000+02:00

By P. J. Bury

Gulla Jan Ahmadzai introduced us to the at time tough conditions for small Afghan farmers to increase their living standards through increased productivity, diversity and access to markets. Road conditions; a lack of consolidation of farmers associations (cooperatives, associations and federation); insufficient adequate product storage to influence and respond to market demands; and a lack of collaboration with intermediary traders and exporters do not favor the realization of their aspirations. Even IFAD itself, supporting them, has difficulties in identifying local context adjusted mechanisms to assist them in their endeavour.
Gulla presents and a lively exchange of experiences and suggestions ensues with among others colleagues working in similar environments like Kosovo.

Gulla will remain in touch with the 8 participants, send them the presentation and exchanged contact details.

Some notes on the discussion

Similar issues in Bosnia
Advise services to farmers are private in Afghanistan
Dairy projects, goats, poultry, training are donations
Trained para-vet at district level, 10 para-vet in each district, trained
Integrated dairy scheme
Micro finance: small donations
Loans provided by IFAD, people not keen in getting loan against interest
Conditions for the sharia loan: sharia production. Loan is given, pay back a % on benefits made. If no benefit is made, only the loan itself is to reimbursed
IFAD works with 4 implementing partners
Project area about 500.000 ha.
No processing included, no storage facility, off-season problems
Example mellon to Pakistan exported in season and comes back more expensive to Afghanistan from Pakistan in off-season
Sugar cane is not processed, exported and Afghanistan imports sugar
Much is still in piloting stage, no loans provided up to know

Challenges
Storage for off-season responding to demand

No off-storage does not allow meeting demand constantly, dispersed production doesn’t provide scale to invest in storage
Bosnia exchanges experiences on storage, gradually improving through much external support (including fresh fish and berries, starting with milk production in UHT)
Traditional storage experiencesIFAD works in 7 provinces, does not involve importers / exporters in project design (as IFAD does in Jemen and Jordan)
Cooling facilities for milk products are not big enough to cater for other products
Cooperative movements could address dispersed production and addressing dealing with private sector (Participant shares experience in Latin America) : farmer organizations are interested in investing this.
Consolidation of cooperative movement seems hampered by levels of education?
Ethiopia example of unions and federation of cooperatives, who then get access to bank loans
No processing facilities to add value
ICT can be used to increase market information: by voice or SMS

Suggestion to increase information on markets, demand, fluctuation of prices

Look into traditional information channels
Grapes a promising product, dry with solar
Government strategy is weak because of political history
Only policy existing is for grain, still in draft
ILEIA suggestion: work more on cooperatives
ICT , paper by Jensen on fishermen in Kerala using cellphone, initially the richer people. Benefits are higher to them than the cost of the cellphone and its use. (paper can be made available, see list of participants).
In higher density areas people can benefit from only a few phonesIf they are organized they can influence the market prices.

#sfrome: Supporting Community Seed Enterprises to improve availability of quality seeds, increase production and support food security (98)

2011-10-06T18:29:00.001+02:00

by Silvia Sperandini

A small but passionate group has animated an interactive session on the potential of local seed enterprises.

Jenny Rafanomezana (Policy and Research Advisor, SHA) presented the innovative intermediary role played by her organization in enabling smallholder farmers to engage in seed multiplication and establish local seed enterprises. Her intervention was followed by a short Video that, with its powerful music, at 9:20 a.m was a perfect energizer.

Then, starting from the concept of Integrated Seed Sector Development, Pietro Chiappini Carpena from Self Help Africa provided an overview on the concept of Integrated Seed Sector Development. While Elia Manda and Shimekit Maru shared their experiences in improving access to quality seeds for rural smallholder farmers through local seed enterprises in Zambia and Ethiopia.

The discussion kicked off by the guest panellists from SHA was just the starting point for a wider discussion of the issues raised. Michael Larinde (FAO/IFAD Senior Expert on Seeds) brought in his knowledge and lessons from recent missions. Other colleagues from AGRA shared their views. The rich debate touched a wide range of issues looking at technical, economic and social perspectives and the implications for seed practice and policy (including aspects linked to farmer organisation development, value chains, and multi-sector partnerships) and the dialogue flew across the world touching various country cases.

The audience concluded that farmers involved in seed initiatives now have a profitable livelihood strategy and that greater access to good seeds result in significant increases in productivity, enabling rural communities to become more food secure.

Once again knowledge sharing proved that barriers can be addressed and that this mutual learning is crucial to scale-up successful models.

Useful Links:

Video: http://bit.ly/qvgNzS;
Pictures: http://bit.ly/mSNgxV
Self Help Africa web site: http://www.selfhelpafrica.org

#sfrome: Partnership with young farmers to promote collective action and entrepreneurship development (38)

2011-10-04T19:25:00.000+02:00

ByMonica Romano and Zoumana Bamba

The story of a young farmer without land kicked off the discussion and experience sharing around what are the needs, expectations and challenges of rural young people and what institutions like IFAD can do to enable them become the leaders of tomorrow and build a promising future for themselves, their families and the communities they live in.

Start with nothing, but dream big. This is the story of a young entrepreneur, Leonard. Supported by the Songhai Centre after 18 months of training, Leonard rented a piece of land from the Centre and has been busy setting up a vegetable garden. Only a year after, Leonard’s life has changed. He is able to sell the harvested cabbage, carrot to the market with a support from the Songhai Centre. This was the beginning of his success. He has put some of the profit back into the business to buy a variety of seeds, thus having a vegetable of products to sell. Leonard is a shining example of the importance of persistence and commitment, in spite of initial difficulties. Leonard has become a proud young man earning an honest living from Agriculture. Another story which illustrates that agriculture can be attractive to a young generation looking for opportunities and that one can make money from it.

George Fernandez, President of the International Movement of Catholic Agricultural Rural Youth (MIJARC), stressed that agriculture is key to eradicating rural poverty and hunger, and that there is need to invest in rural youth to boost the agricultural sector, while supporting policies that can facilitate their engagement in agriculture. Over the past year, MIJARC has been implemented an IFAD-supported grant to map young farmer organizations, in collaboration with FAO. The grant aims to find out the reality of rural young people by mapping their own farmer organizations or those in which young people are represented. It also act as a platform for the rural youth express their views and explain their condition though a survey addressed specifically to them and the hosting of regional consultations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Through these gatherings, young people are invited to share their experiences and indicate the support they need to become successful farmers and entrepreneurs.

Some of the main outcomes of the mapping exercise was presented by Charlotte Goemans (FAO), who showed that only a quarter of the surveyed farmer organizations was found to consist only of young members, whereas the majority of “mixed” organizations have nevertheless more than 50% young farmers as members. The figures increase slightly when data refer to Africa.

In reporting from the consultation that took place in Dakar at the end of August, Clemence Roger (MIJARC) meaningfully started by quoting from young people who participated in the event: “Rural youth are not aware of their rights” stated a Moroccan guy, echoed by another participant from Cote d’Ivoire, according to whom “ young people do not have enough experience in advocacy and lobbying”. The young people had a lot to say and made a number of recommendations indicating the way forward to successfully partner with them and effectively achieve objectives of rural development and rural poverty reduction. Education and capacity building programmes need to be defined together with the rural youth, and women need a special attention in order to ensure equal participation and mainstream gender considerations in selecting both themes and timing of the training. Young people also indicated that they should be involved in design and implementation of rural development policies, projects and programmes as well as to be adequately represented in farmer organizations.

A lively discussion took place after the various presentations across the session, with the facilitation of Philippe Remy, IFAD Country Programme Manager for Mali, and the moderation of Nora OurabahHaddad, Rural Employment and Institutions Officer at FAO. It was highlighted that innovation and creativity characterizing the youth should not forget about the importance of intergenerational transfer of knowledge from the more experienced farmers to today’s generation. The challenges of identifying farmer organizations that are really representing their members also apply to institutions of young people or those dealing with issues pertaining to them. It was also noted that the negative image of agriculture already starts to get built within the family, and then is consolidated at school and finally at the university. Finally, it was concluded that the approach to address youth-related issues needs to be holistic and that agriculture cannot be dealt with as a separate segment.

#sfrome: Cameroon's Tiko farmers go to Market (192)

2011-10-04T19:16:00.002+02:00

by P.J. Bury

Godwin Tanda introduced us to his small local NGO and his incredible drive, will-power and creativeness to assist poor small farmers on degraded former rubber plantation lands in Tiko on the SW coast of Cameroon to diversify, build their productive and marketing capacities and so gradually improve their lives.

The NGO, EPDA, is young, the initiative is young, but already there are things to share (see his presentation). Above all Godwin's objective is to receive peer assistance during the session, so I propose a round of introductions of some 7 participants and their work, encourage them to write up SWOT based feedback during the presentation, have Godwin present, and review and dig deeper in SWOT feedback received. Everyone learns, tips are exchanged, and so is the list of participants and their contact details.

A last tip from my side to Godwin and others (IFAD in Afghanistan): get in touch with the SDC RAS PPP experience in various parts of the world.

#sfrome: Innovative partnerships and multistakeholder approaches promoted in the RAS context (229)

2011-10-04T19:11:00.001+02:00

by Nara Weigel

The 'river of life' drawing above was completed by the green cards in the course of the session and served as a storyline for the thematic input by Marylaure Crettaz (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation) and Nara Weigel (HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation). The story started in the mountains with a personal reflection of Marylaure and continued with a brief introduction of SDC's interest in Rural Advisory Services (RAS) most recently expressed through providing support to the GFRAS (Global Forum on Rural Advisory Services). SDC's reorganisation including the creation of thematic networks - one of them being the Agriculture + Rural development network open to SDC staff and its partners - was illustrated as a bend in the river! The network has been capitalizing RAS experiences. This led to the presentation of two initiatives one at project level in Bangladesh and the other at a global level - where public private partnerships were at the core. See below for an illustration of the key actors involved.

The presentation served as a basis to subsequent discussions in a world cafe format on (1) the added value of public private partnerships - at project and global levels for the farmers and (2) whether private sector involvement at both levels leads to more sustainability. Participants agreed that the success of public private partnerships depends very much on the context....Nevertheless, most participants feel that private sector involvement can lead to new market opportunities for farmers as well as more efficient and relevant services, e.g. through facilitating a better flow of information. Under certain conditions (i.e. social inclusion) this can lead to improved livelihood opportunities. It was also highlighted that the role of the public sector remains crucial regarding quality control and setting enabling environments and policies. Finally, participants pointed out that civil society is an important actor, e.g. farmers as drivers of change and NGOs as facilitators. Nothing new under the sun of Rome ;-)

Community radio an extension to telecentre. What is the next frontier? (154)

2011-10-04T19:02:00.001+02:00

by Antonella Cordone

John Tarawe from the E.Bario Radio, a small projects financed through the IFAD Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility, shared his experience in setting-up the first community radio in Malaysia.
His story was about a dream that everybody thought it could not become real as the government would have not given a license for a community radio for indigenous peoples in Malaysia. John and his team thought their dream could become a reality if they were able to mobilize the right people and talk to the government….. and they were right.

Today the first licence has been issued by the government to the E.Bario Radio Broadcasting and furthermore, they are now supporting the government to design their policy on community radio. Mosses Ndiyaine from the Maasai people of Tanzania shared his experience on the importance of community radio with mobile and pastoralist peoples informing on how community radios are often the only means of communications that can provide services to the community, for instance informing on which are the areas available for mobile people to move their cattle and of conflicts/problems in one particular area.

The presentation by Joan was dynamic and well attended. There were several questions and people sharing experience from other parts of the world. A shairfair is being organized by E.Bario in November in Malaysia and already connections have been established to also invite people from Africa and link-up with on-going project with Bioversity in Malaysia. We will continue telling the stories of indigenous peoples tomorrow and day after with Mosses from Tanzania.

#sfrome: Net-map a great method to share implicit knowledge

2011-10-04T18:56:00.001+02:00

by Paolo Brunello

The promises of Net-map appeal to many judging from the number of people who attended this workshop: indeed everyone admitted to have felt puzzled by complexity, overwhelmed by it, so when you propose a method to harness that complexity instead of succumbing to it, people respond. In fact Net-Map is a technique that allows for zooming out of our own little clearance of knowledge and hover above it, so that we can grasp the wider context and make sense of it.

We started with a "stone in the pond". It's a quick and effective technique to get a feeling of the group and it works like this: people stand in the middle of the room and who feels like it starts off by saying something along the line of: "Hi, I'm Judith, I work in farmers empowerment in Ghana and what I would like to get out of this session is a method to help me engage them more effectively". Everyone will then move, standing very close to Judith if they share her expectation or further away if they don't, along a continuum, like waves of a pond when a stone is thrown in the middle. Thus in few minutes we realised that there was a common interest in learning Net-Map both for strategic planning and monitoring and evaluation, in other words both to create a shared vision of the situation in order to optimise coordinated action and also to visualise the state of things at different times during a process, thus allowing for pre-post comparison.

Almost everyone was new to Net-map so the challenge to learn it in such a short time was big. After a short introduction to the basic steps of the method, three subgroups were created and started to work right away on their maps: they first chose a case study and identified the core question: "Who influences the success of...." and then started writing the names of all the different stakeholders on post-it notes to be placed on the map. Then they selected some relevant links connecting the different stakeholders, like money flow - who is paying whom? - or training - who is training whom? - and they drawn these links using different colors. Then they started assessing the relative influence of each actor in answering that original question, using some wooden discs to build "influence towers" besides each actor.

The final result was a map that portrayed the perceived distribution of power in the system under exam. But perhaps even more important was the process that lead to that map, since every member of the group had to explain why they thought a certain actor was more - or less - influential, thus making their premises explicit. This in one of the key feature of Net-Map: having to draw together, net-mappers are "forced" to share their implicit knowledge of the system under exam making it visible to others, so that we assist to a mutual "perception tuning" that can greatly help the coordination of any subsequent action. While the exercise was going on, some participants volunteered to take an observer's role, to focus on the process of net-mapping without being caught into the specific details of the case study. This then allowed the trainers to address the most burning questions in the final plenary discussion.Finally, as an evaluation, we asked the participants to line up according to their degree of willingness to use Net-Map in the near future and we were pleased to see that the majority of them were optimistic in trying it out in their context.

#sfrome: The Gift Garden

2011-10-04T18:33:00.001+02:00

by Carl Jackson

How easy is it really hear and be heard by each other when we passionately build ideas together? How can we speed up the process of synthesising knowledge created by large groups without loosing consensus? At the ShareFair at IFAD in Rome today it was great to be able to propose that the Gift Garden method can help on both these points.

Gift Garden is a method developed originally for an interactive session on climate adaptation for 80+ participants at a conference in Ethiopia earlier this year. It brings together elements of large group facilitation from approaches including World Cafe and Open Space with playful approaches from Applied Improvisation. What is distinctive about the Gift Garden method is that it enables large groups to build new ideas quickly, collaboratively and creatively drawing on individual experience.

Sharing the method to today and running through the process with a group of really generous and knowledgeable facilitators lead to new insights and suggestions for improving the method. I’m always amazed how despite the anxiety I feel sharing new ideas, how quickly people put one at ease and give of their own experience so selflessly. Today was no exception and the suggestions for strengthening the Gift Garden Method included:

What to do if you have a very vocal person? Maybe have butterfly role to include equitable participation
Can you have multiple topics in the gift garden? Yes if you have more than one topic you can have just one round per topic as more topics provide opportunities for people to be both bees and butterflies
It would be logical to use the ‘Yes And’ Rule for the report back sessions to and that would encourage even more synthesis – Great Idea!
Maybe have post-its for each idea shared in report back and then add these to a big flower at the end of the session – nice idea but could be in tension with the idea of having lots of freedom to improvise as people will be thinking about what to write during the discussion sessions rather than actively listening to each other.
Having equal numbers of butterflies to bees seems like it could be too much – on reflection it still seems a good idea as butterflies need to support each other to play the active facilitation role they are charged with (with few butterflies they may not feel empowered).
If you want to make the outcome of the Gift Garden more action oriented you can ask a more focused question at the report backs – like “What should we do next to move forward on the topic discussed?”
The ‘Yes And’ rule experience: created a very positive atmosphere; challenged us to move beyond Yes But; showed how difficult but important active listening is; showed that silence in the discussion is positive as it allows time to reflect on what has been heard and respond in Yes And mode.
How to move the discussion from the natural end of one set of ideas and the starting a new set without breaking the Yes And rule needs thinking through as not clear yet in the method.
The Butterfly’s role needs to include actively asking Bees to repeat what was last said if they feel Bees are not actively listening or building on each others’ ideas.
Butterflies moderating dominant speakers in Bee groups is a tough assignment. It would help to empower Butterflies to have a huddle of people in this role to share tips on how to facilitate and encourage huddling through out each round to compare notes and decide if an intervention is needed to get bees back on track.
If someone really doesn’t want to be a butterfly then allow them to opt out, but don’t offer this up front as it may encourage people who just want to be Bees so they can push their ideas to take this option.

For a full explanation of how to run your own Gift Garden session and explain it to others please see the attached PDF note developed for the ShareFair Session today. I’ll update this blog post to point to links to photos and interviews about the Gift Garden that others are posting on other sites later today.

If you’ve got ideas and suggestions about the Gift Garden method please let me know.

GiftGarden_ShareFair_Session_19Sept11.pdf (543 KB) (1 Download)

#sfrome: Scaling-up rural innovations. Lessons from the learning route (244)

2011-10-03T15:49:00.003+02:00

The session "Scaling-up rural innovations - lessons from the learning route" brought together planners, managers, resource persons and field practitioners from Latin America, Asia and Africa with hands-on experience or potential interest in joining or promoting learning routes.

Our social reporter Marieclaire Colaiacomo talked to Roberto Haudry and Juan Moreno after the session, and you can watch their conversation here (in Spanish):

#sfrome: A new “mobile” has been officially launched …. (158)

2011-10-03T15:12:00.002+02:00

Written by Maria Losacco

Mobile Extension Teams – An innovative approach for targeting nomadic community (WSRMP)

Model: Mobile Extension Team 2008

Specifications:

Country: Sudan

Locality: Western Sudan

Outreach: nomadic communities (which represent 30% of the 380 communities targeted by the project)

Composition: experts in different fields, e.g. veterinary, women, natural resources management

Features: Conducting an initial selection of communities to be targeted;

Introducing the project and ensuring nomads’ participation in project activities;

Ensuring that nomads benefit from the projects ;

Mobilizing communities members to form Community Development Committee and form the Local Extension Network (LENW);

Ensuring that the LENW in each community receives the required training;

Assessing community needs in terms of both social and productive services;

Ensuring these needs are incorporated in the AWPB of each respective locality and follow-up implementation of planned activities with the local extension team (LET);

Try and persuade nomad community to play a proactive role with regard to veterinary services.

#sfrome: Microfinance to support Gum Arabic Producers Associations (156)

2011-10-03T15:05:00.002+02:00

Written by Maria Losacco

Do we all know what gum Arabic looks like and what it could be used for? The gum Arabic processed products that project staff brought from Sudan and the pictures from the field helped participants to “visualise” the project and its outcomes: this orange resin can actually take several commercial forms and be a precious source of income for people in Sudan.

In the fact IFAD-supported “Revitalizing the Sudan Gum Arabic Production and Marketing Project” aims to increase the production and income of small scale gum producers in selected areas of the gum belt. In particular, as gum Arabic tapping starts right before the sorghum harvest, when household food and cash reserves are at their lowest, addressing the problem of poor access to formal rural financing services for small-scale producers becomes key.

Which are the reasons for microfinance failure?
How can we tackle this difficulties?
Which tools/actions can we use to ensure the sustainability of microfinance?

These three questions led the group discussions.

It has been acknowledged that microfinance could fail mainly because of:

cultural constraints, with regard to trust and transparency;
faulty selection processes;

Among the tools that could be implemented to tackle these difficulties, the attendees stressed the need to have:

clear selection criteria (systematic, fair and transparent) and process in general;
enhanced outreach and capacity of microfinance institutions to supervise project loans and provide support as needed.

With regard to the sustainability of microfinance, the following aspects emerged as key:

the capacity of the government to create an enabling environment;
complete transparency, for example releasing annual reports and being available to explain figures and data to the community.

#sfrome: You want to be as strong as Popeye? Forget spinach. Just drink milk. (41)

2011-10-03T15:01:00.002+02:00

Written by Maria Losacco

You think that without spinach Popeye would give up hope? Maybe … unless he drinks milk!

The story of Popeye has been used as the setting of a very creative video on milk processing in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Syria. A brilliant mix of Popeye cartoon and interviews has caught the attention of the attendees and illustrated the situation in the two countries.

In a country like Syria, studies estimate that about 15% of the milk produced gets wasted because of wrong methods of production, poor processing and marketing. It is a huge quantity worth over 25 million US dollars. In BiH, the same problems have been addressed by IFAD-supported projects through the introduction of improved milk processing, especially with regard to milk conservation and transportation methods.

So why not adopt a south-south approach trying and fostering cooperation between the countries? The two directors of the projects in BiH and a representative of the Syrian Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform were absolutely enthusiastic about the idea and have already started working on it!

#sfrome: The dictionary - Northwestern Community Development Project (155)

2011-10-03T14:46:00.006+02:00

Written by Yamba Mbizule

The Dictionary:

This is the entry for the Northwestern Integrated Community Development Project Phase II (NWCIDP II) operating in Somalia. Session 155 at the Global Agriknowledge Share Fair 2011 IFAD Rome.

Etymology:

Somalia, Somali

Examples:

“The project focuses on combination of many facets of development and social structural dynamics in order to solve the issue of widespread poverty across Somalia. The project has an in depth focus and investment in: The empowerment of women (Setting up women’s organisations/ groups that interestingly showed more promising results than that of their male counterparts) and, capacity building regiments for the communities serviced (this includes book keeping, management, health care services, and credit committee training).”

“Communities are heavily involved in the development process. One innovation made use of within the project framework is a Sand Storage Dam which traps sand and run-off water in order to replenish aquifers with water that will last throughout the year when properly managed.”

“The newly available water has been used to resume production on long-abandoned farm lands. Farmers are now able to not only produce again, they are able to multiply the production and extend production to more than one good. Farmers are now able to grow water intensive products like tomatoes, onions and watermelons.”

“The amount of water available from one Sand Storage Dam can reach in excess of 8.400cm3 ~ 8400ℓ. This water is also safe for drinking. The water can be used for individual families and livestock.”

“The project has been adopted by communities in which the project does not service. The people have seen the benefits and have constructed their own sand storage dams which are cost-effective and easy to construct, even without the use of heavy machinery.”

#sfrome: Phone call to Dr Jacob Mogga (230)

2011-10-03T14:37:00.003+02:00

Written by Yamba Mbizule

The background story:

Dr Jacob Mogga is Project Director for the South Sudan Livelihoods Development Project (SSLDP). The project aims to improve food security with 3 main outputs: increased farm and off-farm production, improved access to market, and the improvement of the living standards of the majority poor beneficiaries.

The project aims to organise and maximise the effect of various stakeholder partnerships – specifically the: Government (to improve structural capacities), Private Sector (provide micro-financing opportunities and experiences), and UN agencies (donors who would help in the provision of funds). The session sought to discuss how to best provide support to communities at the grassroots level and how to create an enabling environment for stakeholder involvement.

There are two key challenges:

The poor state of roads and infrastructure
Farm prices – increasing rapidly by factors such as the high pay demand for labour

Phone Rings…

Facilitator: Good Afternoon, Is this Dr Jacob Mogga?

Dr Mogga: Yes, this is.

Dr Mogga is introduced to everyone in the room and explains in less than 5 minutes the project and challenges. After introductions and clarification on session procedure…

Facilitator: Taking into account Mr Mogga’s concerns, due to time constraints, we will focus specifically on the issue of roads and infrastructure in context of the 3 levels of involvement from the UN agencies, local and national government, and private sector entities.

Focussing on the topics, the peers took on the challenge of brainstorming and came up with the following ideas…

Peer 1: In order to target the private sector, it might be wise to look at an entity large enough to support such an endeavour i.e. an oil company present or operating in and around the development areas. The approach would most likely be that of a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) exercise in which the company gets recognition for investing without any financial gain or stake in the communities.

Peer 2: It would be beneficial to reference the case of Shell in Nigeria. They invested in oil mining in the developing areas of the country but it had severely adverse effects on the communities in and around the operational zones. Shell then sought to repair its image by investing in social development initiatives that would help the community that serviced the plants themselves to improve their livelihoods.

Peer 3: The main concern is that of community wellbeing and improvement, in which case a thorough feasibility exercise would be best in order to ensure that fairness and level of improvement are of a satisfactory standard.

Peer 4: NGOs could be used as a bridge between the communities and the other sectors. The NGOs would have better access to the communities and would be able to then become the voice of the people and moreover a valuable liaison and effector of change in mind set and help to garner support.

Peer 2: Local government would need to gain a good foothold in the newly accessible areas in order to create and maintain a good governance and upkeep structure for infrastructure.

Peer 3: In targeting UN agencies, it would be best to use the power they have in attracting investment from private sector companies. This way the funds are able to be given as a donor without any corporate strings attached.

Peer 5: the UN agencies could also responsible for funding or initiating projects that address the financing of Road Networks, the upgrade thereof and the capacity building of communities in order to allow them to maintain the newly introduced infrastructure.

Peer 1: The project should focus on the building of industry. Key focus should be that of connecting communities and establishing sustainable trade opportunities and better access to markets – this will help towards fostering community buy-in and ownership.

The conversation draws to an end, the facilitator closes and invites Mr Mogga to address any last issues.

Mr Mogga: Thank you very much for your feedback. I will send my details around to each and every one of you in order to establish contact for further feedback. Thank you once again and good afternoon.

The call ends... “And Scene!”

#sfrome: Implementation of the business model approach - linking farmer groups to buyers (7)

2011-10-03T14:25:00.005+02:00

Written by Siobhan Kelly and Denise Senmartin

The World Cafe session shared experiences from three cases pilot tested under FAO’s business model approach. Discussions at the coffee tables focussed on challenges that each of the pilot cases have been confronted with during implementation and as a result some strategic activities and ideas have been proposed that can be adopted during the last months of the projects. Some ideas proposed have been:

The case of rice in Mali

Should FAO encourage the Federation to get a new loan to be able to increase volume?

An upcoming feasibility study needs to focus on understanding if significant improvement in quality can make the business model profitable.

The case of cassava in Zambia

To promote and strengthen the competitiveness of the industrial sector, should FAO and other projects work with commercial farmers in order to satisfy the procurement needs of the industrial buyers?

Engagement with commercial farmers should be accompanied by strengthen of district farmer associations in agribusiness skills and contract management to ensure equitable bargaining power.

The case of pistachio in Iran

How can trust and collaboration be stimulated within a supply chain to improve overall

competitiveness and introduce win-win solutions for all chain players?

Sharing technology and know-how which stimulates linkages vertically and horizontally in the chain.
Implementing rigorous quality control to improve buyers trust in the chain.

The World Café methodology allowed for a dynamic exchange for every participant to express their ideas. The word from some of the them?

“I enjoyed the approach of the World Café. Working for a NGO, I am interested in learning and capturing FAO´s experience as they can reach the policy levels. There is still work to do and the discussion, for example in the Cassava project, can help.” And then, at the stairs “It was my first session like this, I´m an intern at IFAD, so had not much ideas to provide yet but learnt a lot!”

Thanks for the meaningful, inspiring and energetic conversations, even though we forgot the candy!

#sfrome: Getting Stakeholders to Talk - Three Initiatives of OEKR (23)

2011-10-03T13:50:00.005+02:00

Written by Andrea Rudiger

The FAO Research and Extension Branch has jointly presented three of its initiatives at the third day of the Global Share Fair under the title “Approaches for strengthening stakeholders’ abilities to generate, adapt and share experiences”.

1. Food Security through Commercialization of Agriculture (FSCA/PISA)

“What I hear, I forget. What I see I remember. What I do, I know.”

Participants from seven Western African countries, in which Food Security through Commercialization of Agriculture (FSCA/PISA) Projects are being implemented, met in Dakar in 2010. In a workshop participants learned ten new communication tools, such as SWOT analysis, open space, mind mapping, chat show and mapping of communication flows. They used them actively for knowledge exchange and learning from local solutions to challenges common to all FSCA/PISA initiatives. Even though the participants did not all share a common language, the interpretation as well as focussing on visual methods was very helpful in establishing exchange that continues beyond the workshop.

2. Applied Technologies and Practices for Small Agricultural Producers (TECA)

Using the example of a sweet potato disease outbreak in Eastern Uganda, the aims and functions FAO’s online platform for applied technologies and practices (TECA) were illustrated. Partners of TECA such as NARO (National Agricultural Research Organisation in Uganda), the International Potato Center (CIP) and DIFID have shared sweet potato technologies on TECAs online knowledge base. The manager of a local NGO, who has direct contact with local farmers, used TECA’s Exchange Group to alert other stakeholders to the problem and was put in touch with a CIP researcher. TECA enabled this NGO to respond more effectively to the problem on the ground.

3. Rural and Agricultural Development and Communication Network in Egypt (RADCON)

RADCON addresses the communication gap between research centres, extension services, the ministry of agriculture, the private sector and above all small farming communities with a special focus on women and youth. The network facilitates the sharing of knowledge among all stakeholders. At the core of the network are the RADCON centres, to which individual farmers can go to ask specific questions concerning their farming practices. These centres are linked to five so called expert systems (on rice, tomatoes, wheat, grapes and beans), to which village facilitators send the inquiries and receive feedback from specialists. Similar projects are being implemented for example in Bhutan, Uganda and Armenia as part of the Virtual Extension and Research Communication Network (VERCON).

All of these initiatives face challenges, which were discussed in some detail in the session. To make these communication tools and systems work, building capacities for technology and empowering local actors is often necessary. In some cases this means to train basic computer skills (as in the case of VERCON Bhutan). In other cases a face-to-face interaction of an online community might be necessary, thus realising the human component of technology adoption.

Another challenge is to build sustainable solutions, which will endure when the external resources are no longer available. All three initiatives require commitment of human and financial resources by the partners, particularly governments. In the case of TECA the team at FAO can support partners (like research institutes or development agencies) by providing the software for a decentralised platform, but they will have to commit resources to its adaptation to their needs and its maintenance.

#sfrome: Using astronomy and animals, voices to predict rainfall: A Maasai practice (214)

2011-10-03T12:07:00.004+02:00

There is growing recognition that indigenous peoples are affected by the economic, social and environmental impact of climate change and that their traditional knowledge may be critical for effective adaptation and mitigation strategies. At the ShareFair Mosses Ndiyaine from Indigenous Heartland Organization in Tanzania talked to our social reporter Elena DiPaola about how this is carried out, and how to integrate scientific knowledge and indigenous knowledge.

#sfrome: The Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (17)

2011-10-03T12:04:00.001+02:00

Written by Dalia Mattioni

As they say, small is beautiful. And indeed this meeting was small: 5 participants with quite a diverse background- IFAD, an international Swiss NGO, Bioversity – all of whom passionately participated to the debate on how to ensure the sustainability of the FSN Forum. Many ideas were given to the FSN Forum Team on the topic ranging from carrying out user (satisfaction) surveys to ensure that user needs are constantly catered for, to setting up incentive systems based on assigning “loyalty” points to users depending on the frequency (and quality) of their interventions. But while the group may have been small, their range of comments on another topic certainly wasn’t.

Decentralisation was the other hot topic for the FSN Forum team, and here participants shared their suggestions on how to set up Regional FSN Forums, without fragmenting the Global Forum. One of these was placing links to the Regional Forums on the main FSN website so that users would need to go through the Global website to access the Regional sites. The seminar lasted 1 hour, but the debate went on (or is it still going on??) beyond the welcoming Bangladesh Room, into the busy cafeteria…

#sfrome: Greening the Economy through Agriculture: The FAO message for the Rio +20 Conference in 2012 (20)

2011-10-03T11:49:00.004+02:00

Written by Stéphane Jost, Nadejda Loumbeva and Domitille Vallee

FAO gave an overview of the preparation process for the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development and its position on greening the world economies to adapt to global and local climatic changes and achieve sustainable development on our planet. FAO’s main message is: “There is no green economy without agriculture”. In the framework of its “Greening the Economy with Agriculture” initiative, FAO analysed the linkages between the four pillars of food security (availability, access, stability and utilization) and the four pillars of sustainable development, i.e., environmental, economic, social and governance. There should be a focus on more sustainable and low foot-print production systems, ecological certification, support to small holders and promotion of sustainable diets, amongst others.

In the second half of the session, the group brainstormed answers to two questions: 1. Is the FAO message complete? How does it resonate with stakeholders? and 2. What opportunities for collaboration are there? The process framework followed was rotating peer assist.

The groups insisted on the importance to think of a green agriculture = sustainable agriculture that would imply:

diversity - crops, seeds, farming systems etc, building resilience in the system, which goes against the mono-cropping; food systems approaches in a growingly urban economy (from producer to consumer – looking at the entire value chains) : the food processing and marketing are as important as the production ; the food waste issues should be tackled
global mechanisms of natural resources management - enabling sustainable management of land and water in particular - This implies to increase linkages across multiple players, in particular various ministries (agriculture, forestry, fisheries, environment,...);
equity : the poorer, and most vulnerable should take part in problem-solutions at their levels;
working at various scales: countries are different and there is no blanket agriculture solution - urban, industrial and rural economies need different approaches
insisting on education as an important way to promote changes in consumption habits and behaviours related for instance to waste management.
local authority have an important role to play, for instance through procurement policies - which do not imply new rules or legislations - (example of provision of organic products for school feeding in Italy);
several opportunities can be used to promote this message on the importance of agriculture for the green economy, as for instance the Farmers' Forum to be organised by IFAD in early 2012.